RT - Daily newshttp://rt.com/RT : Todayen-usCopyright 2006-2015, RT.comTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:41:56 +0000http://rt.com/static/img/RT_logo_250x250.pngRT.comhttp://rt.com/http://rt.com/usa/245693-carter-isis-too-soon/http://rt.com/usa/245693-carter-isis-too-soon/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:41:56 +0000The campaign against the so-called Islamic State is going well, but it is too soon to declare victory, the Pentagon chief said in an interview as Iraqi forces said they had successfully liberated Tikrit with the help of US airstrikes.]]>

“I think it’s too early to say that we’re winning, but I think we have certainly inflicted a lot of damage,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie during a visit to his old high school in Pennsylvania. The key part would be assembling the local forces on the ground that could “sustain the defeat” of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Iraqi forces successfully liberated Tikrit after a month of fighting, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Tuesday. The city, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Baghdad, had been under IS control since June 2014. US airstrikes began last week to help the stalled Iraqi ground offensive.

The Pentagon confirmed US airstrikes have continued this week, with eight overnight strikes against IS positions near Tikrit, the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and the Kurdish-held town of Kobani in northern Syria.

“The success of the Tikrit experiment will be repeated in other areas,” al-Abadi told Iraqi media.

“It’s the lasting nature of the defeat that’s really the key,” Carter said in the TV interview, echoing his comments to US troops in Kuwait during his February visit. A lasting victory, he said then, would require “those who can take responsibility for their societies and their territory after the campaign against ISIL has rid them of this scourge.”

“It will take some time to inflict defeat upon ISIL,” Carter told Guthrie. “We’re still building the coalition and building the forces, and that’s why I’m hesitant to say we’re winning. I’m confident we will win.”

The loss of Tikrit is the first major defeat for the Islamic State since the retreat from Kobani in October 2014.

Carter is on a two-day tour of Pennsylvania and New York, speaking to students and soldiers about reforming the Pentagon in order to create the “force of the future.” Today’s youth, he said, don’t want to go into big, rigid institutions, but prefer something “agile, nimble and inspiring.”

The top civilian at the Pentagon also commented on the current conflict in Yemen, nuclear negotiations with Iran, and the controversial prisoner swap involving Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, charged last week with desertion and misconduct.

“We do have a principle,” Carter said, declining to comment on any details of the case. “We bend over backward in trying to return an American serviceman.”

Any agreement on Iran’s nuclear program “cannot be based on trust,” the secretary said, but “has to be based on verification.” If the deal falls through, or is violated, “the military option certainly will remain on the table.”

Asked to comment on the war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), disrupted by the recent conflict in Yemen, Carter said the US was “going to continue to prosecute our counterterrorism operations against AQAP whatever happens on the ground there,” but would “have to do it in a different way.”

Much of the media coverage of Carter’s interview focused on him shrugging off the scene from his inauguration, when Vice-President Joseph Biden hugged his wife and whispered to her. Carter said he “laughed” when he watched the video clip of the scene.

“They know each other extremely well. We’re great friends of the Bidens,” he said.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245737-us-lifts-egypt-embargo/http://rt.com/usa/245737-us-lifts-egypt-embargo/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:41:36 +0000President Obama has lifted his arms embargo on Egypt, authorizing the deliveries of US weapons valued at over $1.3 billion, suspended after the 2013 military coup. Egyptian forces have been fighting Islamic militants in Yemen and Libya.]]>

Among the weapons systems released are twelve F-16 aircraft, 20 “Harpoon” anti-ship missiles, and 125 upgrade kits for US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks in Egyptian service. The “executive hold” on weapons deliveries was imposed after the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mohamed Morsi in October 2013. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of US military aid in the world.

In a telephone call on Tuesday, Obama told Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi that the annual military aid amounting to $1.3 billion would continue, but that Washington wanted to “modernize” it by ending sales of military equipment on credit starting in the fiscal year 2018.

Future US aid would be directed towards counterterrorism equipment, border security, maritime security and operations against militants in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as maintaining weapons Egypt is already using, the White House said in a statement.

“In this way, we will ensure that US funding is being used to promote shared objectives in the region, including a secure and stable Egypt and the defeat of terrorist organizations,” Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.

“The United States has had a decades-long strategic relationship with Egypt. Since the August 2013 Egyptian government crackdown, we have made clear our commitment to simultaneously pursuing our security interests and our support for meaningful Egyptian political reform,” added Meehan.

Obama also “reiterated US concerns about Egypt’s continued imprisonment of non-violent activists and mass trials” and “encouraged increased respect for freedom of speech and assembly,” the White House statement said, adding that the resumption of military aid was not a certification that Egypt has made progress toward democracy.

Obama took the decision that complies most with his stance towards the arab spring, he lifts the arm freeze against Egypt oppressive regime

Egyptian air force bombed targets in eastern Libya in February, after militants proclaiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) beheaded 21 captured Egyptian Christians who were in the country as guest-workers. Egyptian forces are also taking part in the operation “Decisive Storm,” started last week by Saudi Arabia against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245725-philadelphia-racketeering-conspiracy-trial-begins/http://rt.com/usa/245725-philadelphia-racketeering-conspiracy-trial-begins/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:35:01 +0000In the trial for six ex-Pennsylvania narcotics officers accused of conspiracy, robbery, extortion, kidnapping and drug dealing during a six-year racketeering scheme, opening statements began with a verbal sparring match between the lawyers.]]>

The former Philadelphia police officers were charged with committing a variety of crimes between February 2006 and November 2012, among them beatings, threatening to shoot suspects, busting into homes without warrants to steal drugs and money, and the distribution of narcotics.

"Make no mistake about it ‒ taking money while armed and while exercising your power as a Philadelphia police officer and keeping it for yourself and your co-conspirators is robbery, even if the money is illegal drug money," Assistant US Attorney Anthony Wzorek said during his opening statements on Monday.

He told jurors the former officers routinely broke into homes without search warrants and ransacked them to steal drugs, cash, a Rolex watch and other valuables.

“These are men sworn to uphold the law but instead broke it," Wzorek said, accusing the six men of "disrespecting their badge" by shaking down suspects, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars and lying about it on their police reports.

But Jack McMahon, Reynolds’ lawyer and the first defense attorney to give an opening statement, told jurors the government had little evidence to back up the testimony of their criminal witnesses, including that of convicted former narcotics unit member Jeffrey Walker.

"They take all this cast of characters, and they get Jeffrey Walker, and they think... they can just wash away all the problems of this case," McMahon said.

"When you're dirty and despicable and dumb and arrogant, it's easy to get you," McMahon said of Walker, who was arrested in May 2013 on charges of robbery, extortion and committing criminal acts through his position as a police officer. Walker pleaded guilty to robbery charges and faces up to 10 years in jail.

"If you have 19 bags of trash," he told jurors, "you don't have better trash. You just have a pile of trash."

The case began when the FBI started to investigate Philadelphia’s Narcotics Field Unit and conducted two undercover sting operations, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Walker was nabbed during the second sting, and began to cooperate with the federal investigators, telling them of cases where he and the other officers stole money or drugs, physically abused suspects or committed other crimes.

In one instance, the officers allegedly held a drug suspect over a balcony railing of an 18th-floor apartment during an interrogation. In another case, the six officers kidnapped a drug suspect and held him in a hotel room for days while making threats to his family, federal prosecutors said, adding that the officers often attempted to cover their activities by falsifying police reports.

Information provided to investigators by Walker was used to build the case against the rogue officers, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said when the six men were arrested.

The six officers were subsequently removed from the narcotics unit after the District Attorney’s Office told the commissioner’s office that their testimony could no longer be used in their cases, Ramsey said. The officers were not fired at the time in an effort to maintain the integrity of the ongoing investigation, he added.

"That many of the victims were drug dealers, not Boy Scouts, is irrelevant," Edward Hanko, head of the FBI's Philadelphia office, said when the officers were arrested. "This corrupt group chose to make their own rules. Now they will have to answer for it."

Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper has dismissed 160 cases relating to investigations conducted by Walker. She upheld another 58 cases in which Walker played a lesser role or there was other corroborating evidence, authorities said.

The six men are also the subjects of at least 81 federal lawsuits filed between November 2011 and August 2014, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The city paid at least $777,500 between 1999 and 2012 to settle 15 lawsuits involving Betts, Reynolds, Spicer, Liciardello and Speiser, according to a 2012 Daily News report. Attorney Michael C. Schwartz, who is representing 14 plaintiffs, told the paper that he expects the number of lawsuits to grow.

The city could owe millions of dollars to plaintiffs if it loses or settles those cases.

The defense’s opening statements continued Tuesday. The racketeering corruption trial is expected to last for 10 weeks. If convicted, the six officers face between 40 years and life in prison.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245641-yemen-offensive-saudi-iran/http://rt.com/news/245641-yemen-offensive-saudi-iran/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:12:53 +0000Yemen’s ousted officials have requested a ground intervention to bolster a Saudi-led air offensive against the country’s Houthi rebels. Meanwhile, neighboring Iran has made calls for diplomacy, saying the military campaign is a “strategic mistake”.]]>

Saudi authorities say they have gathered troops along the border with Yemen in preparation for any possible ground offensive, Reuters reported on Tuesday, adding that no exact time to send the troops in has yet been stipulated. Pakistan, which has previously supported Riyadh by deploying troops to Saudi Arabia to provide extra regional security, also said that it is sending troops to support Saudi Arabia in the context of the current Yemeni conflict, the agency reported.

Despite airstrikes delivered by Saudi air forces and their Gulf allies, the Houthis are continuing their offensive against the dwindling loyalists of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Hadi was ousted by the rebels and fled to Saudi Arabia, requesting military intervention from the Arab states.

The heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of air offensive was reported on Tuesday, with Saudi troops clashing with Yemeni Houthi fighters. Hadi-allied officials have remained hopeful that Riyadh would send ground troops to turn the tide for the ousted official.

“We are asking for that [Saudi ground operation in Yemen], and as soon as possible, in order to save our infrastructure and save Yemenis under siege in many cities,” the president’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yasseen said an interview with al-Arabiya Hadath TV channel.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian labeled the Saudi strikes a “strategic mistake” and called for a dialogue to help solve the crisis in Yemen. “Iran and Saudi Arabia can cooperate to solve the Yemeni crisis,” the official said in Kuwait, as cited by Reuters, adding that Iran “recommends all parties in Yemen return to calm and dialogue.”

“This war is not about Yemen or the Houthis, it's about what used to be a cold war between the Persians and the rest of the Islamic world, especially the Arab Gulf. Today the cold war became a real one,” political analyst Roula Taj told RT.

More casualties have been reported in the escalating conflict, with overnight street clashes in Hadi’s stronghold Aden claiming at least 26 lives, Reuters reported, citing a health ministry official. Ten others died during the Tuesday shelling of a residential building close to the residence once used by the president, the agency reported referring to witnesses accounts. In the central town of Yarim, an air strike hit a fuel tanker, killing at least 10 people, residents said.

Coalition bombers targeted rebel positions near the airport of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, while fighters from the Houthi militia entered a coastal military base overlooking the Red Sea's strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, local officials told Reuters. Heavy fighting between Hadi loyalists and opponents was also reported in southern province of Dhalea.

On Monday, 45 people were killed and another 65 injured in an airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition at a refugee camp in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, according to the International Organization for Migration (IMO).

The airstrikes have also affected the Red Cross medical supplies deliveries to the area, with the planes which are carrying the necessities unable to fly to Yemen.

“In Yemen today we have a very serious humanitarian situation. Hospitals are running at a low capacity... We need to bring in urgent medical supplies to sustain our stocks,” spokesperson at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Near and Middle East Sitara Jabeen told RT.

She added that the organization was expecting to bring in a plane carrying medical supplies for up to 1,000 patients to Sanaa, “but so far have not been able to get the permission we need to move this plane from Jordan to Yemen.”

So far, the airstrikes have failed to change the military balance in Yemen. While Houthis reportedly found an ally in Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who resigned in 2012 amid mass public protests, some Western officials have alleged that Iran financially supports the Houthis in an effort to control Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Voicing support for the Saudi bombing campaign, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan last week accused Iran of seeking regional dominance in the Middle East. Tehran officials said Erdogan’s visit to Iran, which is scheduled for next week, may now be scrapped. The warning came from Iranian MP Esmayeel Kosari in his Sunday interview with the semi-official Fars news agency. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Ankara to act responsibly in the conflict.

Russia has also warned against reducing the complex Yemeni conflict to a simplified stand-off narrative, whether national or sectarian in nature. “We cannot allow it to degrade into a Sunni-Shiite confrontation. Neither can we allow the situation to turn into an open conflict between the Arabs and Iran. We will do everything to prevent it,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

The intensified fighting in the country provides a fertile ground for extremism and terrorism, with Yemen having already having been an operational base of Al-Qaeda militants for years. After the Yemeni and Saudi branches of Al-Qaeda merged to form Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group became one of the world’s biggest exporters of terrorism, with the US considering it the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda.

AQAP claims to be behind January attack on Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris, with terrorists saying the main enemy of Islam is now France rather than the United States. The latter has already scaled down its operations against AQAP in the region, undermining an effort dating back to 2002.

The conflict in Yemen may also hamper the campaigns against the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, where US and its Arab allies found themselves on the same side as Iran. Extremist groups affiliated with the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) now operate in Yemen, with its militants claiming responsibility for recent attacks on mosques in the country's capital Sanaa, in which over 100 people have been killed and hundreds injured.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245729-japan-us-naval-cooperation/http://rt.com/news/245729-japan-us-naval-cooperation/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:05:35 +0000Tokyo’s push to lift restrictions on the use of force oversees will contribute to closer cooperation between American and Japanese forces in Asia, the US Seventh Fleet commander said.]]>

Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has announced that in the coming months he plans to ask parliament to ratify his cabinet decision from July 2014 to allow the country to exercise its right of collective self-defense.

The proposed bills are likely to pass as Abe's coalition enjoys a vast majority in the Japanese National Diet.

The lifting of the restrictions will allow Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to provide military assistance to an ally state under attack if the situation “threatens Japan’s survival and poses a clear danger to fundamentally overturn (Japanese) people’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Abe’s plans have been praised by Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, which has its headquarters in Yokohama, Japan.

“CSD (collective self-defense) makes it easier for the Seventh Fleet and JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) to exercise and operate across the Indo Asia Pacific," Thomas is cited as saying by Reuters.

JMSDF commander, Admiral Eiichi Funada, has insisted that the Japanese forces “have the capacity and capability for operations in international waters and international airspace anywhere on the globe.”

The drills and joint missions by US and Japanese naval forces may extend from Japanese territorial waters through to the disputed South China Sea into the Indian Ocean.

Tokyo and Washington have no territorial claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing may find the US and Japanese presence in the area worrying.

The South China Sea is contested by China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations in the region.

Beijing has refrained from harsh comments on the issue, expressing “hope that relevant Japan-US cooperation and the development of their relations can play a proactive and constructive role for regional peace, development and stability.”

However, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, added the alliance between Japan and the US “should not exceed its bilateral scope and nor should it harm the security of interests of countries in the region.”

Washington is actively supporting Japan’s increasing military role in Asia as a counterbalance to China’s growing naval power in the region; Beijing is taking an increasingly assertive stance in territorial disputes.

On Tuesday, US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Harry Harris Jr. has accused Beijing of “unprecedented land reclamation,” claiming China is “creating a great wall of sand” over four square kilometers.

The People's Liberation Army Navy of China consists of 495 vessels, including 26 destroyers and 67 submarines, and keeps growing.

The US Seventh Fleet is centered on a carrier battle group and has 80 vessels and 140 aircraft in its possession.

Japan’s navy also represents a significant power as it can rely on 120 vessels, including more than 40 destroyers and around 20 submarines.

As the losing side in World War II, Japan was deprived of a military capability, with the country’s constitution outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes in 1947.

The Japanese Self-Defense Forces were created in 1954 to maintain order in Japan and repel any possible invasion from outside, following the pull out of US troops out of the country due to the Korean War.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245681-us-two-state-poll/http://rt.com/usa/245681-us-two-state-poll/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:29:31 +0000American support for a two-state solution in the Middle East is at a 20-year low, according to a new poll.]]>

Thirty-nine percent of Americans surveyed recently said they support the creation of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday this week concluded.

But while those who in favor of an independent Palestine outnumber those opposed to the idea – 36 percent of the group quizzed, according to pollsters – the latest numbers suggest a decline with regards to the degree with which Americans support a two-state solution.

Compared with similar polls from years past, calls for an independent Palestine are diminishing: Aaron Blake, a reporter with the Post, wrote that “the idea of establishing a new Palestinian state alongside Israel in the Middle East is more divisive than at any point in the past 20 years.” Indeed, Blake reported that the latest statistics show the smallest level of support since 1998, as well as the smallest margin between endorsement and opposition in at least two decades.

Since February 2014, support of an independent Palestine has dropped by 7 percentage points, according to the Post’s reporting.

In 2003, a Gallup Poll suggested that 58 percent of Americans favored a two-state solution. Support has waned in the span since, however, with that number slowly shrinking to just 51 percent in 2009, where it stayed for roughly three years.

Although a majority of Americans have supported a two-state answer since at least 2005, according to past polling conducted by the Post, ABC or Gallup, the latest 39-percent statistic has not been seen since the late 90s. Thirty-nine percent favored an independent Palestine during an October ‘94 poll referenced by the Post, but 13 months later that representation was down to 36 percent.

The most recent survey – taken over the telephone by 1,003 adults between March 26 and 29 – suggests that a rapid decline in support has occurred particularly during the last few years. Slightly more than half of those polled in February 2012 said they supported a two-state solution, but that number slid down to 44 percent a year later before briefly climbing up ahead of the latest dip.

Earlier in March, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of neighboring Israel, said he’d refuse to recognize Palestine if re-elected to office.

“Anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state, anyone who is going to evacuate territories today, is simply giving a base for attacks to the radical Islam against Israel,” he told an Israeli news site, NRG.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245713-manhattan-gas-explosion-illegal/http://rt.com/usa/245713-manhattan-gas-explosion-illegal/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 19:42:18 +0000New York City officials have indicated that the cause of last week’s blast in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan was caused by an improperly accessed natural gas line, calling into question the frequency of such configurations.]]>

The explosion at 121 Second Avenue killed two, injured around two dozen, and caused three adjacent buildings to collapse. One of the two killed was identified on Monday as Nicholas Figueroa, 23, who was eating in the first floor sushi restaurant at 121 Second Ave. when the explosion occurred.

According to the Associated Press, DNA testing will be done on the second body found amid the rubble. Restaurant worker Moises Locon is still reported missing.

The investigation of what happened at 121 Second Ave. is ongoing, but top officials said they are watching closely for an illegal gas connection.

"There's reason to believe so far that there may have been inappropriate tampering with the gas lines within the building, but until we get full evidence, we can't conclude that," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.

New York utility Consolidated Edison told the AP that improper gas hookups are “fairly uncommon,” but others in the business maintain that it’s a more frequent occurrence.

"It's a regular, regular problem," said expert Mark McDonald, of NatGas Consulting. "Just as you can imagine theft in a Wal-Mart, no different — but it's much more dangerous."

McDonald said has a gas worker around Boston for 25 years, he or a colleague found an improper set-up – some sophisticated and some quite crude – around once a week.

"I've seen everything from complete morons to really detailed theft," he said.

Federal statistics indicate that since 2010, 11 gas pipeline accidents based on illegal gas access have occurred nationwide. The AP reported that those incidents likely include only major episodes and not more minor or clandestine mishaps.

In August, utility workers for Consolidated Edison found the restaurant to have an illegally configured gas hookup, according to AP. The utility shut down the building’s gas service for around 10 days while the building's owner had repairs done. Service was restored once the line was found to be safe, said Con Ed.

Con Ed workers had been at the building just an hour before the blast. They deemed work to upgrade gas service did not pass inspection, locking the line as they left. Work was planned to install a bigger gas line to service the entire building, according to Con Ed President Craig Ivey.

Shortly after Con Ed workers left, the restaurant owner smelled gas and called the building owner and contractor, according to New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.

The contractor and owner’s son went into the basement and opened a door, AP reported, only to be burned by the explosion.

Fire investigators are in the process of clearing debris in order to reach the cellar, where the blast occurred.

"When we reach the level of the gas piping, the way the debris is removed will change so that those who will investigate the mechanics of what happened will have access to that without it being torn apart," New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

The building’s landlord has not answered repeated attempts for comment, AP reported. The building’s contractor has refused to comment on the investigation.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245717-china-great-wall-us/http://rt.com/news/245717-china-great-wall-us/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 19:41:10 +0000The US has accused Beijing of "unprecedented land reclamation," claiming China is "creating a great wall of sand" over four square kilometers, in the disputed area in the South China Sea. The move has caused concerns over China’s territorial intentions.]]>

Speaking at a naval conference in Australia, US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Harry Harris Jr. said China has been “pumping sand on to live coral reefs — some of them submerged — and paving over them with concrete. China has now created over 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles) of artificial landmass."

"But what's really drawing a lot of concern in the here and now is the unprecedented land reclamation currently being conducted by China," Harris said.

Harris reminded that the region is known for its beautiful natural islands, but "in sharp contrast, China is creating a great wall of sand with dredges and bulldozers over the course of months."

Submerged reefs in the Spratlys archipelago have been turned into artificial islands with buildings, wharves and runways.

While China claims a vast majority of the sea, it still has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, and Malaysia. Earlier this month Vietnam and the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest with Beijing.

The main concerns of US military and other regional players are about the purpose of these islands, as they could potentially be used for military and other facilities to strengthen the country’s territorial claims.

"How China proceeds will be a key indicator of whether the region is heading toward confrontation or cooperation," Harris said.

Australia is also concerned about the situation. Last year, it agreed with Japan to increase military cooperation and exercises as a hedge against China’s fast-growing military potential.

The US called all claimants to comply with the 2002 China-ASEAN Declaration of Conduct, in which the parties committed to "exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability."

China insists its territorial claims have a historical basis and the US should not meddle in these disputes.

The US is bolstering its own military presence in the region. US navy fleet commander Harris said the United States is currently preparing to shift 60 percent of its fleet to the Pacific by 2020.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245721-fresno-california-police-shooting/http://rt.com/usa/245721-fresno-california-police-shooting/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 19:07:25 +0000At least two people have died during a domestic situation turned violent in downtown Fresno, California on Tuesday, authorities say.]]>

A medical facility in Fresno was evacuated on Tuesday after officials received reports of shots fired at around 10:52 a.m. PDT, according to a local ABC News affiliate. Two hours later, the Associated Press reported that two people had died: the suspected gunman and his wife, who worked at the building.

Fresno Deputy Police Chief Pat Farmer identified the suspect as a 43-year-old Asian male named Moua Neng. He declined to identify the 33-year-old woman, but said the two had five children together, all of whom have been contacted and are okay. Armed with a shotgun, Neng entered the facility and shot the woman "several times at close range," Farmer added.

After a pause, another shot was heard as police entered the medical building. This shot is presumed to be the one Neng used to take his life, Farmer said. Thirty-three children were inside the building at the time, and all have been accounted for. No other injuries have been reported.

According to Farmer, Neng had one prior case of domestic violence on record with the department. He was arrested for it 11 years ago, but that was the last time police had cotnact with him.

Veronica Miracle, a reporter with ABC, said a witness who was at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Fresno saw a man enter a nearby pediatrics office with an assault rifle and another gun, shooting in the air. The man said he then heard a woman screaming, and around 20 minutes later the building was evacuated.

A second witness, the journalist reported, said that she fled the building after a distraught older man, possibly intoxicated, entered the office and made threatening remarks towards a woman there.

Speaking with local CBS reporter Lucero Benitez, a witness said the suspected gunman entered the office with a shotgun and "confront[ed] his alleged ex wife." The woman ran out of the office after the couple started fighting, the witness added.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245709-nasa-mars-flying-saucer/http://rt.com/usa/245709-nasa-mars-flying-saucer/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 18:33:44 +0000Humanity may one day be landing on Mars in flying saucers, if NASA’s test of the new lander design proves successful. A rocket-powered disc with an inflatable donut-shaped balloon on top is intended to replace the 1970s landing technology.]]>

Dubbed the “Low Density Supersonic Decelerator” (LDSD), the vehicle is supposed to make it possible to “safely land heavier spacecraft on Mars.” The idea is to use the balloon cover as a “drag device,” to safely decelerate in the thin Martian atmosphere from almost hypersonic speeds to twice the speed of sound (Mach 2). A parachute would then slow the LDSD down to subsonic speeds, and it would land using stabilizer rockets.

The four stabilizer rockets will be tried out in Tuesday’s “spin-table” test, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Current technology, first used in the 1970s to land the Viking probes, can only land about one metric ton on Mars at a time. More capacity is needed to establish any sort of long-term human presence on the Red Planet.

“The new drag devices are one of the first steps on the technology path to landing humans, habitats and return rockets safely on Mars,” NASA said in a statement. Testing will be conducted through 2015, with potential launch to Mars as early as 2020.

NASA describes the drag devices as “very large, durable, balloon-like pressure vessels that inflate around the entry vehicle,” slowing it down from speeds over Mach 3.5 to Mach 2 or lower, whereupon a parachute 30.5 meters in diameter would deploy and slow the entry vehicle down to subsonic speeds.

Two of the inflatable cover designs, one with a diameter of 6 meters, another with a diameter of 8 meters, are currently undergoing testing. If Tuesday’s stabilizer test is successful, the next step would be sending the vessel to orbit from a test facility in Hawaii.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245689-clinton-ipad-emails-gowdy-interview/http://rt.com/usa/245689-clinton-ipad-emails-gowdy-interview/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 18:29:32 +0000Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used both her Blackberry and an iPad to email with State Department employees from her private account and server, despite previously saying she only used one device. Now the server has been wiped clean.]]>

New emails released by the State Department show that when Clinton was secretary of state, she used her Apple iPad to communicate with employees, and that, on at least one occasion, accidentally mingled business and personal emails.

Among the four emails released by the State Department in response to a 2013 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Associated Press, was an exchange between Clinton and her deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin.

"I like the idea of these," Clinton wrote to Abedin in September 2011. "How high are they? What would the bench be made of? And I'd prefer two shelves or attractive boxes/baskets/ conmtainers [sic] on one. What do you think?"

When it was revealed at the beginning of March that Clinton used a personal email account administered from her family home to conduct official State Department business, she told reporters that it was a matter of convenience.

“When I got to work as secretary of state, I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails,” Clinton told a packed room of reporters at the United Nations.

“Looking back it probably would have been smarter to use two devices,” she added.

Nick Merrill, Clinton’s spokesman, told the AP on Tuesday that Clinton used her iPad occasionally during her time at the State Department, using it mostly to keep up with the news.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina), who heads the House Select Committee on Benghazi, issued a subpoena for the private server that hosted Clinton’s emails as the congressional panel investigates the 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

"We learned today, from her attorney, Secretary Clinton unilaterally decided to wipe her server clean and permanently delete all emails from her personal server," Gowdy said in a statement.

In response, the Benghazi committee has formally asked Clinton to answer questions about the server during an in-person, transcribed interview before May 1, the Hill newspaper reported.

In a letter to Clinton’s attorney, Gowdy said the committee is “committed to reviewing and considering every document related to the work the House of Representatives charged us with doing.”

“Toward that end and because of the Secretary's unique arrangement with herself as it relates to public records during and after her tenure as Secretary of State, this Committee is left with no alternative but to request Secretary Clinton appear before this Committee for a transcribed interview to better understand decisions the Secretary made relevant to the creation, maintenance, retention, and ultimately deletion of public records,” he continued.

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, noted in a statement that Clinton had previously agreed to testify under oath about the server.

Clinton has said that she deleted 30,000 of about 60,000 emails exchanged during her four years as secretary of state because they were “personal in nature,” but that she turned all of her work-related emails over to the State Department. The emails the agency released in response to the FOIA request were included in the document dump. The AP request had sought Clinton's correspondence with senior advisers during her time in office relating to drone strikes overseas and US surveillance programs.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245625-jesse-ventura-off-grid/http://rt.com/usa/245625-jesse-ventura-off-grid/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:57:48 +0000Jesse Ventura, the former professional wrestler turned governor of Minnesota, steps into the ring with politicians, journalists and opinion makers for lively debates on his new weekly current affairs program on RT America.]]>

“Off the Grid,” a talk show launched by Ventura last year on Larry King’s Ora TV internet network, will join RT’s Friday evening television line-up beginning this Friday, April 3.

In a statement released by RT, Ventura said the program will showcase “uncensored discussions on the critical issues facing America today.”

“Independent viewpoints such as my own are few and far between,” Ventura said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that my show will be aired on RT America, as well as continuing on Ora TV as my digital home.”

According to an online archive of the show’s past episodes, Ventura’s most-viewed segments since launching last January are an interview with former presidential hopeful Ron Paul, a sit-down with actor William Shatner and a 13-minute monologue on the “life and crimes” of Dick Cheney, the former vice president of the United States.

“‘Off the Grid’” will become yet another platform for independent and alternative viewpoints – something that made our channel popular with American audiences from the start,” said RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan.

Ventura, 63, has hosted nearly 200 episodes of “Off the Grid” since the show’s kick-off, and prior to that starred for three seasons in the truTV series, “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura."

Previously, Ventura served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 and 2003 after a stint as mayor of Brooklyn Park, MN. His rise to fame started in the 1970s, when Ventura began performing with the World Wrestling Federation. He later starred in the 1987 sci-fi cinema classic “Predator” and has since authored more than half-dozen politically-themed books, including 2011’s “American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us."

In a statement, RT said that “Off the Grid” will continue to be filmed in “a secret location,” but that its host may appear at the network’s studios for special coverage.

After “Off the Grid” launched on Ora last year, Ventura said in an interview with RT that he had begun filming the show in Mexico, “so that the drones can’t find me.”

“I view the United States, today, much like East Berlin. And I’m off the grid. I’ve tried for 20 years to warn the country about the Democrats and Republicans, and nobody’s listening,” he said.

“Off the Grid” will be the third Ora TV show produced exclusively for RT America. The network currently carries episodes of Larry King Now and Politicking with Larry King, both staring the veteran interviewer and Ora TV co-founder.

Tyrel Ventura, the son of the former governor, currently co-hosts “Watching the Hawks,” a talk show that began airing on RT America in March 2015.

Starting April 3, “Off the Grid” will air Fridays at 6pm EST on RT America, the exclusive worldwide broadcaster for the show. The show will continue to stream online at ora.tv and will be available online on rt.com.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245705-arizona-governor-veto-police/http://rt.com/usa/245705-arizona-governor-veto-police/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:57:09 +0000The governor of Arizona has rejected a controversial bill that would have kept the identities of law enforcement officials temporarily sealed in the event of officer-involved shootings.]]>

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, vetoed Senate Bill 1445 on Monday evening just prior to a midnight deadline. Had he failed to take action, the bill would have established a statewide law mandating that the names of cops would be kept secret for 60 days following any serious or fatal officer-involved incidents.

The proposal, backed by law enforcement unions and the Arizona State Legislature, aimed to protect officers and their families from retaliation amid a wave of anti-cop sentiment that has intensified in recent months, prompted by situations including the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, among others. The State Senate voted in favor of the bill 20-8 on March 24.

In a three-page explanation released by the governor’s office on Monday evening, however, Ducey said that he feared that unintended consequences could give way if authorities are forced to stay silent for a two-month span following a serious event.

“I don't believe this bill in its current form best achieves the objectives we share, and I worry it could result in unforeseen problems,” Ducey wrote. “Arizona's Public Records Act already gives police departments the authority to withhold the names of police officers who are involved in shootings – longer than 60 days, if necessary.”

Roberto Villasenor, the chief of the Tucson Police Department in the state’s second most-populated city, had previously urged the governor to veto the bill despite it having received majority approval in the Legislature, as had the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, among others.

“Enacting legislation that would hamper that trust by not allowing officers’ names to be released is not in my opinion the best way to improve or repair that level of trust,” Villasenor said.

“This proposal would have taken Arizona in the wrong direction, by exacerbating distrust between communities and the public safety officers responsible for protecting them, while at the same time eroding the transparency that is critical to our democracy,” ACLU of Arizona Executive Director Alessandra Soler said in a statement celebrating the governor’s late night veto.

Backers of the bill, however, called the proposal a common-sense measure. State Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican sponsor of the effort, said that the bill satisfied the need to shied cops and their families “from being assassinated by lunatics or political zealots” in a society where “misinformation can put everybody in jeopardy,” and Levi Bolton Jr., the executive director of the Arizona Police Association, told the New York Times that the effort “was not intended to be nefarious, or to deprive people of information.”

“There’s no other benefit derived from this other than to protect the name of the officer,” the union leader said, adding that he had been made “livid” by the governor’s veto.

“This bill was designed to protect an officer and the officers’ family,” House Representative Charlene Fernandez, a Democrat who voted against the bill, explained to the Daily Wildcat. “However, there is not one documented case of officer vandalism to his home or harassment to his family after an incident relating to deadly or excessive use of force...this bill was clearly a solution to a problem that does not exist.”

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245649-farage-britain-first-retaliation/http://rt.com/uk/245649-farage-britain-first-retaliation/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:54:58 +0000Far-right group Britain First attacked a meeting of rival activists in retaliation for a political “cabaret” protest held in UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s local pub in Kent last week.]]>

The meeting, held by Beyond UKIP in an office block in Old Street, London on Monday night, saw Britain First storm the premises chanting “Left-wing scum, off our streets.”

After failing to breach the meeting room, Britain First organizer Paul Golding told those present: “We’ve come here tonight to give them a taste of their own medicine.”

“If you overstep the mark you will find us on your doorstep.”

Exclusive footage handed to RT shows the attack from the besieged activists’ perspective.

RT spoke to a Beyond UKIP member who was present at both the pub protest and the Britain First siege in Old Street.

Bilal, a London-based PhD student, told RT: “People were shaken up, mainly because they brought so many people (eight to 10 according to the Metropolitan Police) and also because there was at least one pregnant woman in the room and, as you know, adverse stimuli can have really terrible health effects.

“We started recording immediately, called the police, and barricaded the door to prevent them from entering. People were panicking, but stayed calm enough in order to deal with the situation, including giving police statements afterward.”

“The Britain First video doesn't include them slamming on the door, and going to the walls and hitting them to intimidate us.”

Asked if Beyond UKIP expected this kind of backlash, Bilal said: “We expected that people would be angry about it, but we did not expect that Britain First would get involved in such a physically confrontational manner, especially not with their leader.

“It indicates quite a bit of fear, but also cynicism, since Paul Golding is clearly attempting to capitalize on the news story to make Britain First seem more effective.”

As to the question of whether Britain First were acting independently of Farage, Bilal said: “I don't think that it can be disputed that some ties exist between Britain First and UKIP unless Nigel Farage explicitly disavows them and condemns the group.

“Otherwise, it looks as though Golding recruited people to take revenge against anti-UKIP dissenters in Farage's name, which is obviously not what voters want from any Westminster party. It recalls the kind of violence that characterized British politics decades ago.”

A Met police spokesman reported that a 48-year-old man had been arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245637-left-unity-election-manifesto/http://rt.com/uk/245637-left-unity-election-manifesto/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:42:26 +0000Britain’s anti-austerity party Left Unity launched its election manifesto in a squat in central London on Tuesday with an impassioned speech by veteran filmmaker Ken Loach condemning the nation’s mainstream political parties.]]>

The party said it chose the squat at Ingestre Place in a bid to “highlight the number of large buildings standing empty in London at a time when homelessness is increasing.”

Nestled in the heart of Soho, central London, the crumbling block has been home to a group of political campaigners known as Love Activists London for five weeks. It is the 17th large building the group has occupied since December 2014.

On Tuesday afternoon, Loach pitched Left Unity’s general election pledges in the squat’s well-kept quarters. The 78 year old film director co-founded the party with other leading activists and academics in 2013 to oppose harsh spending cuts backed by the majority of Britain’s political parties.

Loach is cherished in Britain for his gritty portrayals of working class life in ground-breaking films such as Cathy Come Home (1966), Kes (1969) and My Name Is Joe (1998).He was joined by fellow Left Unity members Felicity Dowling and Kate Hudson.

“I'm only a rank and file member; please don't present me as the [party’s] leader,” said Loach in his opening remarks.

Throughout the course of his address, he emphasized Left Unity’s anti-capitalist objectives. The party’s manifesto was opposed to diktats of the market, and decidedly pro-immigration. It was also emphatic that people should be prioritized over multinationals and banks.

Loach was particularly critical of Labour and Britain’s trade union movement. He asked how Labour can call itself a party of the left. He went on to say he doesn’t believe Ed Miliband’s party “will end the privatization and subcontracting in the health service.”

“The left is not a crowded place I’m afraid,” he said, lamenting it has become “quite sparse.”

Loach compared Britain’s mainstream political parties to “bald men arguing over the comb – a fine point discussion between people who have no real answers.”He also hit out at Britain’s Trade Union Congress (TUC), warning it has become an“empty phrase.”

Loach said the trade union movement needs “the strength of working people.”

“We need stronger trade unions with stronger leaders that don’t just give money to the Labour party for the Labour Party to cut its throat,” he said.

“I think people should fear the Tories and UKIP as an extreme example of the Tories,” he said. “There’s a cruelty aboard. And there’s a fear aboard.”

Loach predicted further cuts to social benefits and the rise of “crueler sanctions” should UKIP manage to increase its share of seats post May 7. He said Nigel Farage’s party represent “all that is mean spirited” in British politics.

Left Unity has a total of ten candidates in Britain’s 2015 general election.

The party’s national secretary Kate Hudson said it had chosen the modest venue at Ingestre Place to draw attention to Britain’s homelessness crisis.

“Rents are rocketing and good housing is getting further out of reach for so many – yet there are 700,000 empty buildings in Britain that could be brought back into use,” she said.

“It’s just not right that so much space is wasted while people are sleeping on the streets.”

Paul from Love Activists London, who have been occupying Ingestre Place for over a month, said the campaign has occupied “prominent buildings” in central London to highlight the issues of “homelessness, gentrification and capitalism.”

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245669-treasury-sanctions-syrian-artifacts/http://rt.com/usa/245669-treasury-sanctions-syrian-artifacts/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:25:11 +0000In an effort to curb a source of income for the jihadist Islamic State group, top US lawmakers have urged the US Treasury Department to craft sanctions against any illegal importation of cultural and historical artifacts stolen from Syria.]]>

In a letter to Acting US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin, four ranking members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee -- Reps. Ed Royce, Eliot Engel, William Keating, and Chris Smith -- said the impetus for the sanctions is to discourage what has become a funding source for the so-called Islamic State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL).

“By adopting these restrictions, the United States would close our markets to the trafficking in historical artifacts that helps fund the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the barbaric terrorist group that continues to occupy large swaths of Syria and Iraq,” the congressmen wrote.

“To date, our efforts to eliminate ISIL’s sources of funding have focused primarily on preventing oil smuggling and denying ransoms demanded for kidnapping. However, a comprehensive effort must also cover looting and trafficking of cultural property, which has become a significant source of funding for ISIL and other terrorist organizations.”

Earlier this month, Rep. Engel introduced the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, which aims to “protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters, and for other purposes.”

In their letter, the representatives called for the US Treasury Department’s support of UN Security Council Resolution 2199, adopted in February to prevent the illicit trade of Syrian cultural artifacts.

The UN resolution stated that the Islamic State and other militant organizations in the region “are generating income from engaging directly or indirectly in the looting and smuggling of cultural heritage items from archaeological sites, museums, libraries, archives, and other sites in Iraq and Syria, which is being used to support their recruitment efforts and strengthen their operational capability to organize and carry out terrorist attacks.”

In late February, the Islamic State posted a video online allegedly showing a group of militants inside a museum in Mosul, Iraq, using sledgehammers to destroy Assyrian-era statues and other artifacts, saying they are symbols of idolatry.

“This is a propaganda video that is intended as an act of heritage terror,” Dr. Stephennie Mulder, an associate professor of Islamic Art at the University of Texas at Austin, recently told RT.

“[ISIS] know this kind of action will cause alarm in the international community,” said Mulder. “It demonstrates their mastery over everything. Their mastery over the past and it has a deep impact on the people of Iraq as well who cherish these objects.”

It was reported weeks later that at least some of the statues and artifacts shown destroyed in the videos were fakes. Mulder told RT that of about 60 artifacts shown demolished in the Islamic State videos, only six or seven were replicas.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245701-lubitz-told-lufthansa-depression/http://rt.com/news/245701-lubitz-told-lufthansa-depression/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:23:51 +0000Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps with 150 people on board last week, informed Lufthansa of his psychological problems in 2009.]]>

Lubitz told his flight school in medical documents he submitted in connection with resuming his flight training, about a “previous episode of severe depression,” Lufthansa said in a press release.

The co-pilot of flight 4U9525 “interrupted his pilot training at the Flight Training Pilot School for several months,” the company added.

According to the press release, Lubitz “received the medical certificate confirming his fitness to fly” on his return to training.

Lufthansa said it had submitted additional documents to the Dusseldorf Public Prosecutor, including the co-pilot’s email correspondence with the flight school.

Investigators believe that Lubitz locked the captain of the Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf out of the cockpit and flew the Airbus A320 into the side of a mountain.

They said torn-up sick notes were found that showed the 27-year-old co-pilot was suffering from an illness and these should have grounded him.

Germanwings, owned by Lufthansa, said it hadn’t received a sick note from Lubitz for the day of the crash.

Previously, Lufthansa's CEO said the company wasn’t aware of anything that could have induced the co-pilot to crash the plane deliberately, and that he was fit to fly.

Lufthansa may be facing unlimited liability for damages in the crash, aviation lawyers said, as the company told its insurers to set aside $300 million to cover claims, recovery costs and the loss of the plane.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245645-flying-gas-refuel-planes/http://rt.com/uk/245645-flying-gas-refuel-planes/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 17:01:04 +0000Flying gas stations could enable long haul flights to cover much greater distances and improve energy efficiency, a European research project has suggested.]]>

Air passengers could soon be able to hop on a plane in Europe and travel non-stop to Australia and New Zealand, if a new concept in aviation takes flight.

The longest flight currently in operation is a Qantas Airlines route from Dallas/Fort Worth to Sydney, covering a distance of 8,578 miles (13,804 km).

Scientists are also exploring the idea of passenger transfers mid-flight, reducing the number of times an airplane would need to land and take off.

The innovation would involve the use of refueling jets capable of meeting planes in the sky to provide top-up kerosene.

Mid-flight refueling operations already exist and are sometimes used by military jets.

Air Force One, the official plane of the US President, is capable of being refueled while in the air, as are some helicopters.

Scientists working on the project, Research for a Cruiser Enabled Air Transport Environment (RECREATE), said aircraft fuel makes up about a third of the weight on long-haul flights at take-off.

Under a system which makes use of refueling jets, researchers estimate passenger jets could carry less fuel on takeoff, then refuel once they reach an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 meters).

Noise pollution would also be reduced, as airplanes make more noise the heavier they are at takeoff.

Researchers estimate the amount of fuel needed on departure could be reduced by up to 23 percent for every 6,000 nautical miles flown by a plane carrying 250 passengers.

The joint project is being led by the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in Amsterdam and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

An even more radical idea proposed by researchers would see passengers being flown to board planes which continually circle the earth in set routes.

The ‘air metro’ system would reimagine current conceptions of air travel and provide added convenience, the scientists claim.

“Think of the added convenience if you bought a ticket not for a particular flight but for the transport system,” RECREATE writes on its website.

“You could step on board when it suited you and you could change flights not on the ground but in the air.”

]]>http://rt.com/business/245621-gazprom-partners-debt-shares/http://rt.com/business/245621-gazprom-partners-debt-shares/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:48:10 +0000Russia’s Gazprom has paid $1billion to the consortium of Germany’s Wintershall, Italy’s ENI, and France’s EDF for their stakes in South Stream Transport.]]>

Gazprom reportedly paid Italy’s Eni, which owned 20 percent of South Stream approximately $390 million, and about $290 million each went to France’s EDF and Germany’s Wintershall, who both had a 15 percent share of the project. The Russian company was not obligated to buy the stakes as they all shared the project risks. However, Gazprom is interested in saving South Stream Transport’s pipeline construction contract with Italy’s Saipem.

The pipe-laying fleet Saipem mobilized to build South Stream is still in the port of Burgas and Gazprom is paying hundreds of thousands of euro per day, waiting for the work on Turkish Stream to start.

The South Stream project was agreed in 2012, and was seen as an important step towards energy security for Europe, as it would bypass politically unstable Ukraine, and reduce the reliance on gas from North Africa. However in December, Russia was forced to withdraw from the project due to the EU’s unwillingness to support the pipeline. The EU Commission has been pressuring member states to withdraw from the project, with the Bulgarian government saying it will not allow Gazprom to lay the pipeline without permission from Brussels.

The project has been replaced by Turkish Stream, an alternative gas pipeline from Russia, under the Black Sea to Turkey, and on to the Greek border, giving Russia access to the Southern European market.

Unlike South Stream Russia will no longer be responsible for the pipeline within Europe. It will only build up to the Turkish-Greek border.

The redemption of shares belonging to European South Stream shareholders has several positive aspects in addition to costs, as Gazprom becomes the sole owner of all the property and assets of the project, the head of Russia’s National Energy Security Fund Konstantin Simonov told Gazeta.ru.

“Firstly, the pipes that have been already purchased might be used in the construction of the Turkish Stream. Secondly, a feasibility study on South Stream has been already conducted, meanwhile three-quarters of the route coincides with the Turkish Stream route,” Simonov was quoted as saying.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245525-veterans-ptsd-referrals-increase/http://rt.com/uk/245525-veterans-ptsd-referrals-increase/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:38:08 +0000Experts warn the “floodgates” of post-traumatic stress are about to open, as a top armed forces charity claims mental health issues among military personnel have risen 26 percent over the last year.]]>

The charity Combat Stress, which supports veterans with mental health issues said: “This increase is mainly accounted for by a marked rise in those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan seeking help.”

Some 2,264 personnel have requested treatment with three-quarters said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – an average of six veterans per day over the last 12 months.

Many are also affected by depression and abuse of alcohol and drugs – symptoms associated with the condition.

Head of medical services at Combat Stress Dr Walter Busuttil said: “It is the biggest increase we have seen in recent years and we expect it to continue, so we are building up our clinical services accordingly.”

“I do think there needs to be more significant investment in relation to veterans’ mental health. The good news is that we do have treatments that work.”

In a report carried out over the last two years, Combat Stress claims the success rates for veterans on its PTSD Intensive Treatment Programs are around 90 percent.

Other groups have questioned the effectiveness of treatments used by Combat Stress, however, which favors methods like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Martin Webster served in Iraq before becoming a therapist. He now runs the New Leaf Program, helping mentally damaged veterans.

He called EMDR and CBT treatments out of date.

Speaking to RT, Webster said he wants to see “a coalition of military mental health organizations” that can come together to “look at the academic evidence, see what therapies are available, what has been independently studied” in order to provide the best solutions.

He said the treatments commonly in use are inadequate.

“Some of the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have done more than two years in a conflict zone. That has never happened in human history,” said Webster.

“It is a cataclysmic experiment because PTSD affects society as a whole. Ten percent of prisoners are ex-forces, and 9,000 homeless are ex-forces.”

Dennis Carlon is part of the independent psychological team that works alongside charity Talking 2 Minds.

He told RT: “There is not enough being done. They are banking on therapies that do not work, so every 3 months they have the same people back in therapy such as CBT and EMDR.”

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) maintains the rise in referrals is a good sign – the result of their efforts to increase awareness in the ranks and destigmatize PTSD.

Carlon contests the claim, saying while “the MoD have put some effort in,” its record speaks for itself.

“The figures do not add up, as normal with the MoD. They are known to lower the PTSD rate [figures]. They simply do not know it.

“I asked them a couple of years ago [whether] they have figures for veterans who have committed suicide, to which they replied no.”

“The true figure for PTSD is rising all the time and I feel the flood gates are about to open.”

The MoD also suggests levels of PTSD in the military are the same as those among civilians, a claim contested in a 2013 report by advocacy group Forces Watch.

“The most recent study of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans across all branches, roles, ranks and ages found a rate of PTSD of 4.2 percent,” Forces Watch countered.

“The rate found in the general population in England in the most authoritative study available found a rate of 3 percent, or 2.7 percent if adjusted to reflect the gender profile of the armed forces, which provides a more appropriate comparison.”

“The military rate is therefore appreciably higher than that in the general population.”

Forces Watch said the MoD was obscuring figures by ignoring factors such as age and social class.

“Government statistics showing the average prevalence of mental health problems in the armed forces mask the much greater burden that certain groups shoulder, particularly young people from adverse backgrounds and those who have left the forces in the last decade.

“For example, alcohol problems (harmful levels of drinking) among young military personnel are three times as common as among young civilians; the long-term suicide rate among young ex-forces personnel is also three times as high.”

“The rate of PTSD among Iraq War veterans who joined the forces without GCSEs has been twice that of those whose highest educational attainment was at A Level.”

Speaking to RT, the report’s co-author David Gee questioned the terms in which the rise has been reported.

“No statistician would use number of referrals as a measure of the prevalence of a problem,” said Gee.

“A higher number referrals could indicate many possible situations, including that more people are suffering from PTSD.”

Gee also echoed the claim that MoD figures routinely ignore the impact of battle stress on different age groups and social classes.

“A relatively small proportion of the armed forces are deployed to war zones and then repeatedly exposed to traumatic events.

“A navy officer from a privileged background stationed on a ship far from a war zone (or far from the front line even if their ship is deployed) is unlikely to suffer from PTSD because their exposure to trauma is likely to be low or non-existent.”

“The situation is very different indeed for a young infantryman from a poor background who has repeatedly experienced trauma before enlistment and then again afterwards in war (particularly seeing friends killed or killing other people at close quarters).”

“It is rather artificial to take the armed forces as a whole and provide a percentage of prevalence of PTSD, when what matters more is which groups in the armed forces are most affected,” he said.

Gee holds little confidence in the government’s will to address the issue fully.

“The state has never been and probably never will be fully committed – both financially and practically – to supporting veterans who return from war with mental health problems like PTSD.”

“If it were truly committed to meeting such a challenge, the sheer cost of it might well cause a government to think twice about ever going to war again.”

“It is not abnormal that they may come home damaged in some way by the experience – it would be abnormal if they did not.”

Responding to the study, a spokesperson for the MoD said: “Mental health support to the armed forces has improved in a number of ways, including providing pre- and post-operational stress management training, a wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments and initiatives such as trauma risk incident management.”

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245617-cheaper-trains-nationalise-rails/http://rt.com/uk/245617-cheaper-trains-nationalise-rails/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:35:41 +0000Britons could see train fares slashed by up to 10 percent if the railway network was brought back under public ownership, a study by campaigners has revealed.]]>

Passengers struggling to pay for season tickets could benefit from “massive” savings if profits creamed off by private operators and shareholders were reinvested back into a nationalized railway service.

Research by Action for Rail found that £1.5 billion could be saved over the next five years, as contracts held by 11 private firms operating the rail network come up for renewal.

With the potential savings, campaigners claim the government could introduce free off-peak travel for children traveling with their parents, season tickets could be cut by 10 percent by 2017 and by 2020 all ticket prices could be reduced by 3 percent.

Action for Rail estimated £520 million of savings could be made if shareholder dividends were given to the government.

The report comes as a poll of 1,000 voters found only 17 percent want railways to remain in the hands of private companies. The group We Own It, which compiled the results, said 40 percent of respondents wanted to see the whole network controlled by the state.

It follows separate research which revealed British travelers pay twice as much as a proportion of their salary on rail fares as passengers in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, where railways are publically owned.

The publication of the report also coincides with a day of action, with events held at more than 40 stations in the UK.

Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary and chairman of Action for Rail, said: “The UK has the most expensive rail fares in all of Europe.

“If services were run by the public sector, it would make a big difference to families and hard-pressed commuters, who have suffered year after year of wage-busting fare increases under privatized rail.

“This report highlights once again the huge cost of privatization to taxpayers and passengers. Money that could be spent on making journeys cheaper is instead being siphoned off into shareholders’ pockets and wasted on bidding and other franchising costs.

“The case for an integrated rail network under public ownership is overwhelming.”

Transport will become a point of debate in the weeks leading up to the general election. The Labour Party is expected to broach the issue in its election manifesto, following comments from former Deputy PM John Prescott, who spoke in favor of ending privatization.

The only parties openly vying for re-nationalization are the Green Party and the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition.

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators sounded a cautionary tone.

“The figures from Action for Rail should be taken with a large pinch of salt. Compared to the late 1990s, train companies are paying five times more money to government, largely because of phenomenal passenger growth on Britain’s railway, helping to fund big investment in better services.

“Increases to season tickets are regulated by government and operators offer a range of fares to suit the needs of different passengers, including some of the cheapest fares in Europe.”

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245653-yemen-humanitarian-crisis-red-cross/http://rt.com/op-edge/245653-yemen-humanitarian-crisis-red-cross/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:31:46 +0000The humanitarian situation in Yemen is critical and the Red Cross’ priority is to provide hospitals with medical supplies to help the wounded in airstrikes and clashes, says Sitara Jabeen, the International Committee of the Red Cross for Near and Mideast]]>

RT:Your organization wants obstacles removed so you can get vital medical supplies into Yemen. What are those hurdles?

Sitara Jabeen: In Yemen today we have a very serious humanitarian situation. The hospitals are running at a low capacity and the Red Cross has been supplying medicines and other medical supplies to the hospitals over the last few weeks now. We need to bring in urgent medical supplies to sustain our stocks and to make sure that all the people who have been wounded because of the airstrikes, but also because of the street battles and clashes that are taking place on the ground, are able to get the treatment they need. We were expecting today to bring in a plane that will carry medical supplies for 700-1,000 patients. We were planning to bring it into Sana’a but so far we have not been able to get the permission we need to move this plane from Jordan to Yemen.

RT:So is it because of logistical problems or because of this permission?

SJ: For us the main issue is to get the permission we need, the official permission from all the parties who are concerned with this so that we are able to mobilize. For us it’s not a logistical problem. The Red Cross, the ICRC, has a warehouse in Yemen and we have these supplies available in Jordan. It’s just a matter of loading a plane in Amman and bringing it in to Sana’a but we need the permission to be able to do that.

RT:Who are you negotiating with, and are they being receptive?

SJ: In Yemen today we are talking to almost all the parties to the conflict. To be able to bring in this plane we are negotiating with the coalition members but also with people who can have influence on bringing in these supplies and also distributing them in Yemen to the local hospitals. So at the moment we are talking to the authorities in Yemen and also the coalition members and we are trying our best.

SJ: I cannot predict that. It depends. We are making constant efforts, and for the time being we do have some stock in Yemen available and we have been supplying the local hospitals in the southern part of the country and also in the north - wherever there have been strikes or clashes between groups. …The Ministry of Health is really overwhelmed with the situation in Yemen. So we have to bring in these supplies so that the Ministry of Health and the local hospitals are able to provide the treatment that people need the most at the moment. I can’t say how long it will take but we are trying our best.

RT:Where in Yemen is the situation at its worst?

SJ: The most affected area for the time being is the southern part of Yemen especially in Aden. There has been fighting around the Aden airport and also in Aden’s central neighborhoods, there have been airstrikes as well in the area not just in the Aden city but also in the neighboring provinces Shabwah as well as Al Dhale. And I would also say that one of the Yemeni Red Cross volunteers was shot dead in Al Dhale yesterday when he was evacuating injured people to an ambulance. So the situation especially in the southern part of Yemen is very critical and that’s what we are focusing on at the moment.

RT:International law prohibits attacks that might cause incidental losses among civilians. How does that tally with yesterday's coalition strike at the refugee camp?

SJ: There have been extensive reports about that. But as I said our priority at the moment is to make sure that the hospitals have the supplies they need to treat the wounded patients, that’s what we are focusing on. At the same time I would also like to highlight that the situation in Yemen is so critical for everyone, there is no safe place in Sana’a in particular at the moment. There has been shelling close to the area where our office is for example. So it’s very difficult to obtain the information we need and to be able to go and visit all the affected areas, it’s not that easy. We are trying our best at the moment. But the priority is to bring medical supplies which hospitals need the most right now.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245629-no-gold-twenty-years/http://rt.com/business/245629-no-gold-twenty-years/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:30:35 +0000The explored reserves of gold, diamonds and zinc will be enough for 20 years of extraction, according media reports citing a Goldman Sachs research. The explored reserves of platinum, copper and nickel will last for 40 years.]]>

“The combination of very low concentrations of metals in the Earth’s crust, and very few high-quality deposits, means some things are truly scarce,” Eugene King, European metals and mining analyst at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a recent research note quoted by Zero Hedge.

The reduction of precious metal deposits will lead to a sharp rise in prices, he said. Their “relative scarcity and the market’s belief that new discoveries will be limited, is what drives the price of these super-rare commodities.”

USAGOLD analyst Peter Grant says peak gold production will come soon.

“Peak gold is not a new concept at all,” he said to MarketWatch. “Mining output has been fairly flat for years, but new discoveries of gold have been falling rapidly.”

"It is difficult to speak about reforms when 30 percent of GDP has been left in the territories [of the self-proclaimed republics - Ed.]. It is difficult to speak about reforms when society is engulfed by military operations in the east," Avakov said at the Stress Test expert forum Tuesday, TASS reported.

Ukraine’s eastern industrial base is a large chunk of the country’s GDP, about 16 percent according to Investment Capital Ukraine. Lugansk and Donetsk regions account for 25 percent of industrial goods and services. Many of these industries, such as coal mining and energy, have been shut down due to the conflict.

The loss of key industries in the country’s eastern province is worrying for Ukraine, a country already on the brink of financial disaster as the war drags into a second year.

Between lost industry and war expenses, the conflict between pro- and anti-government forces has already wiped out 25 percent of Ukraine’s economy in the first 3 months of 2015. Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko has said 30 percent of next year's budget would be spent on defense and debt obligations.

Ukraine’s economy shrank 6.8 percent in 2014 and is expected to contract another 5.5 percent, according to the IMF’s latest forecast. At the end of 2014, the country’s GDP was 1.5667 trillion hryvnia, or about $121 billion. The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency forecast Ukraine’s GDP will shrink to $99 billion in 2015, and in a worst case scenario put forward by the Economist to $70 billion.

When calculating the country’s GDP in 2014, Ukrainian officials excluded Crimea, that reunited Russia in 2014, or the Donbass conflict area.

During the coming year, Ukraine will receive an additional $10 billion from the International Monetary fund, part of a $17.5 billion recovery plan, and bringing total aid to around $40 billion. The first tranches of money will be used to prop up the country’s beleaguered currency and foreign reserves. The Ukrainian hryvnia has lost 60 percent of its value in the last year and has dropped to 23.44 to the dollar, far weaker than the 21.75 per dollar limit envisioned by the IMF.

Foreign currency reserves stood at $5.6 billion at the end of March, compared to the $36 billion level in 2011. The lack of foreign currency reserves, among other factors, guided Moody’s ratings agency to slash Ukraine’s sovereign debt rating to one level above junk status.

Ukraine is asking foreign bondholders - from the Russian government to American hedge funds- to agree to a $15.3 billion debt restructuring plan, which in short, would mean debt forgiveness.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245517-gazans-risk-israeli-military/http://rt.com/uk/245517-gazans-risk-israeli-military/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:56:53 +0000Civilians living under Israeli occupation in the besieged Gaza Strip face a greater risk to their lives in the wake of a recent shift in Israel’s “military rules of engagement,” a new study warns.]]>

In a report released on Tuesday, British NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said theIsrael Defense Force’s (IDF) use of artillery on Palestinians is characterized by a“wide gap between public rhetoric and reality on the ground.”The NGO warned Gazan civilians face a greater risk of death from Israeli“artillery shelling”than they did prior to 2005.

As part of its research, AOAV examined regulations dictating where the IDF have deployed explosive weapons since 2005. While Israel withdrew its ground troops from Gaza in 2005, the IDF’s air, land and sea blockade of the coastal strip remains steadfast.

AOAV’s research, ‘Under Fire’, examined suggestions made by Israeli officials that the IDF have greatly improved the protection of Palestinian civilians from the effects of Israel's explosive artillery.

Israeli military experts often describe such artillery as ‘statistical weapons,’ according to AOAV. The NGOargues this terminology reflects the“inherent inaccuracy”of explosive weapons, which fire repeated rounds of“heavy, unguided shells.”

The NGO'sreport reveals that rather than decreasing the risk of civilian deaths from Israeli explosive weapons, the IDF’s rules regulating such practices have been relaxed since 2005.As a result, Gazan civilians face a greater risk of dying from Israeli artillery shelling than they did nine years ago, AOAV said.

Director of Policy at AOAV, Iain Overton, stressed unguided artillery shells are a “relic of a bygone day.”He said there is no reason to prevent the IDF from scrapping its use of such dangerous and destructive weaponry in civilian populated areas.

AOAV’s research found 2014 was characterized by the IDF's heaviest use of“high-explosive artillery shells”in eight years.Despite Israel’s investment in alternatives to the artillery it traditionally used, a minimum of 34,000“unguided shells”were fired into Gaza last year, AOAV said.This marks an increase on the number of unguided artillery shells launched in any IDF military campaign since the Lebanon War of 2006, it added.

AOAV’s report revealed the IDF launched almost five and a half times as many“high explosive artillery shells”during its military assault on Gaza in 2014 as it did during its military offensive against Gaza in 2008/09.It added the IDF has dramatically reduced the distance that regulates how close artillery shells can land to residential homes in recent years. While this distance stood at 300 meters in 2005, the IDF shortened it to 100 meters in 2006.

AOAV said this policy shift puts civilians at greater risk because the estimated “casualty-producing radius of a 155mm artillery shell is close to 300 meters.”

The NGO's report concluded the only policy to have yielded a clear improvement in the rate of civilian deaths in Gaza was a temporary suspension on artillery shelling implemented by Israel in December 2006. After 2008, however, this measure was scrapped.

“In recent years the IDF has shifted away from using other devastating weapons like multiple rocket launchers or globally-banned cluster bombs,” Robert Perkins, Senior Researcher at AOAV, said.

“It doesn’t seem like this shift has extended to unguided heavy artillery, but these wide-area effect weapons have no place in an urban populated area, where their effects cannot be controlled.”

A UN report published last week found more Palestinian civilians died as a result of the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2014 than in any year since 1967.

The report, published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said Israel’s Operation Protective Edge resulted in the death of over 2,220 Palestinians, 1,492 of whom were civilians.

In what the OCHA described as the “worst escalation of hostilities” since the Six-Day War in 1967, 71 Israelis were also killed, 66 of whom were soldiers.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245593-southampton-israel-conference-cancelled/http://rt.com/uk/245593-southampton-israel-conference-cancelled/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:56:51 +0000Academics organizing a controversial conference on Israel’s legitimacy under international law claim the University of Southampton intends to withdraw its support, an assertion denied by the college.]]>

Conference organizers penned an open letter on Tuesday decrying the decision on “health and safety grounds,” accusing the university of caving in under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists.

The professors said they were considering legal action against the university, which they claim is legally obliged to uphold freedom of speech.

Almost 900 academics from around the world, including Professor Noam Chomsky, have signed a statement in support of the conference.

“This is a sad decision for freedom of speech and for historic Palestine (which includes what is now the Jewish State of Israel and the 1967 Occupied Territories) and ALL the people who live there,” the organizers wrote in a blog post.

The ‘International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism’ conference is being organized by law professors Oren Ben-Dor of the University of Southampton and George Bisharat of the University of California.

Ben-Dor and Bisharat said in a statement the university informed them on Monday it intends to withdraw permission for the conference due to health and safety concerns.

Given the media attention surrounding the controversial debate, the university expects demonstrations to take place on campus.

“The university claims it does not have enough resources to mitigate the risks, despite a clear statement from the police confirming they are able to deal with the protest and ensure the security of the event,” Ben-Dor and Bisharat wrote.

A university spokesperson told RT a review of the conference was “still ongoing.”

“The University of Southampton is in discussion with the organizers of the conference ‘International Law and the State of Israel’ about the possibility of withdrawing permission for the event to be held on campus. However, this review process is still ongoing.”

“Any decision will be judged purely on considerations around the health and safety of our staff, students and for the general public,” the spokesperson added.

Conference organizers claim the university’s intention to cancel the event is due to pressure from “the Israel lobby,” which has been vocal in its opposition.

“We feel that the manner the university communicated with the police and conducted the risk assessment shows that the security argument was used to rationalize a decision to cancel the conference that has been taken under public pressure of the Israeli Lobby,” they wrote.

Conservative minister Eric Pickles wrote to the University of Southampton earlier this month asking them to ensure the conference heard “all sides of the debate.”

Last month, the UK’s ambassador to Tel Aviv Matthew Gould met with a British higher education umbrella organization to discuss the limits of academic freedom.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Gould supported Jewish community representatives in trying “to frame a debate as to where the line is crossed between freedom of speech and discourse which affects Jewish academics and students on UK campuses.”

Supporters of the conference believe the university’s health and safety concerns are a pretext. Their concerns are supported by a recent article published in the Jewish Chronicle (JC).

Speaking to the JC, Vivian Wineman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “When we had a meeting with the university vice-chancellor they said they would review it [the conference] on health and safety terms.”

“The two lines of attack possible were legal and health and safety and they were leaning on that one,” he added.

According to Ben-Dor and Bisharat’s open letter, attempts by organizers to meet with the university vice-chancellor were unsuccessful.

“On the other hand, the vice-chancellor has met with pro-Israel representatives without ever calling us to attend meetings,” they wrote.

Ben-Dor and Bisharat said they were considering legal action against the college if the university pulls the plug on the debate.

To cancel the event on health and safety grounds would be “grossly disproportionate” and therefore may be illegal, they claimed.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245665-russia-ukraine-gas-discount/http://rt.com/business/245665-russia-ukraine-gas-discount/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:51:14 +0000Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend Ukraine’s gas discount until the end of June, after a request from Gazprom on Monday.]]>

"Let's do it [extend the discount – Ed.]"- Putin said Tuesday.“Today’s terms will remain in effect for another three months. But taking into account that the final gas price for our international consumers, one way or another depends on the oil price, and the oil price on the global markets is highly volatile, in three months we’ll have to check what’s going on in the sector and after that make supplementary decision,” the president said.

The discount on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine in the second quarter of 2015 will be equal to that of the first quarter, according to Russia’s presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov. He has stated that the package is being prolonged for three months without changes. In the first quarter, Ukraine secured a discount on Russian natural gas equal to the export duty rate but not more than 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

Earlier the head of Gazprom Aleksey Miller said the company had asked the Russian government for a 3-month extension to the discount on gas for Ukraine.

At a meeting with the president, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said lower export duties are not favorable for the Russian budget, but taking into account Ukraine’s difficult economic situation, Gazprom’s and Ukraine’s request could be supported provided the basic terms of the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz are adhered to,including“paying back all the debts accumulated so far.”

In the first quarter of 2015 Ukraine paid $329 per thousand cubic meters for Russian gas.The so-called 'winter package' deal with Kiev stipulating a $100 discount per 1,000 cubic meters expires on March 31.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245237-russia-economy-government-success/http://rt.com/business/245237-russia-economy-government-success/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:35:54 +0000Economists in Russia and the US agree the worst is over for Russian economy, with Bloomberg changing its tone praising it as an ‘underrated land of opportunity’. Experts agree President Putin’s economic team managed to turn around a pressing environment.]]>

Russia’s economy is recovering from last year’s panic following the slump in oil prices, according to experts.

With the Russian Central Bank’s currency reserves increasing last week for the first time since July, and all of the major economic indicators improving, Western governments should be convinced that economic sanctions have no discernible effect, a Bloomberg View contributor, Leonid Bershidsky said in his article published on March 27.

The managers of the Russian economy, especially at the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry managed to keep Russia’s economy open in a difficult environment, he said.

“We see that the Government has strongly opposed the imposition of any restrictions on the free movement of capital, thus reaffirming the commitment to the course of economic openness,” Aleksandr Prosviryakov, Treasuries & Commodities Manager at PWC, told RT.

Chief economist at BCS Financial Group, Vladimir Tikhomirov agreed, telling RT by phone that the government managed to keep the economy going despite all the risks, including currency risk.

Russia held $131.8 billion of US debt in 2014, according to Bloomberg. While reserves as a whole dropped 23.9 percent in 2014, the holdings of US debt fell 37.6 percent, to $82.2 billion, as Russia started cutting its holdings of the US currency amid the sanctions standoff.

The Russian ruble has been performing well lately; it gained 1.5 percent against the dollar last week in its best winning streak since mid-2013. Moreover, oil has played a much less prominent role in the ruble’s exchange rate in the first three months of 2015. Last year the ruble closely mirrored every action of oil prices - with the oil benchmark losing 50 percent of its value in the last 6 months of 2014, the ruble lost about 44 percent. Now the ruble is doing better than Brent crude.

The Central Bank decided to start easing its benchmark interest rate, cutting the rate from 17 percent to 14 percent. This helped Russia to become an attractive carry trade destination, Bloomberg economists suggest.

Russia is now one of the most attractive countries in terms of risk/return ratio, Prosviryakov said, adding that there was a significant inflow of foreign investment to the Russian market in the last few weeks. He believes the trend will continue.

Global investors also appear to be optimistic about the future of Russian corporations as the country’s economic performance provides evidence to recovery. Around 78 percent of enterprises represented in the MICEX index showed a greater increase in sales than their counterparts around the world.

The growth of quotations for the main Russian financial assets suggests that interest towards Russia is gaining momentum, including from international investors, according to Prosviryakov.

Meanwhile, the Russian government’s forecasts point to a full-year contraction in gross domestic product of about 3 percent in 2015. Bloomberg economists expect a 4 percent drop, while Goldman Sachs predicts a decline of 2.7 percent. The Russian economy will shrink 3-4 percent according to Vladimir Tikhomirov’s forecasts.

Sanctions and restrictions

Russia remains a major market economy that cannot be “derailed by a few timid restrictions,” the Bloomberg analyst wrote in his article, adding that Russia has been named one of the top markets for equity performance this year, along with the US, China and India.

Russian economists say Western sanctions had a double effect on the country’s economy. Restrictions imposed by some trading partners, on the one hand, hampered the business relationship between the companies in these countries with their Russian counterparts, but on the other hand, they have opened up new opportunities for friendly companies, Prosviryakov told RT. Meanwhile, Tikhomirov suggests that Russia’s food embargo also caused problems for the economy with the following wave of inflation.

New business opportunities

Russia has a lot of new business opportunities with different countries that are now mostly coming from Asia. Moscow and Beijing plan to extend their strategic partnership in finance, aviation and space, as well as improve trade and economic cooperation. The two countries decided to switch to local currencies in trading settlements and also to create a joint rating agency. Russia and China have been boosting cooperation in various fields, including the energy sector in which the countries signed a huge $400 billion gas deal.

Moscow is also looking forward to trade in national currencies with Turkey. The countries are working on completion of the Turkish Stream pipeline which is to deliver 15.75 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Turkey, and another potential 47 bcm to Europe via Greece.

Local media reported that the ordeal began unfolding at around 10:40 a.m. local time in the basement of the La Mott Fire Company in southeastern PA. The firehouse is in Cheltenham Township in Montgomery County, roughly 13 miles north of Philadelphia.

According to a local Fox affiliate, an unnamed source said that three hostages were being held by an ex-firefighter as of 11:30 a.m. WPVI, an ABC News affiliate, said that local law enforcement officials confirmed that an armed subject was inside the fire station.

A person was seen leaving the building at around 11:30, but it was not immediately clear how they were involved in the incident. A second person was detained around 15 minutes later outside the firehouse at gunpoint, and local media reported soon after that law enforcement had taken a suspect into custody.

The La Mott Fire Company is one of five stations in Cheltenham, and close to at least two schools, a major shopping mall and several churches and apartment complexes, according to ABC.

NBC10 reported just before 12 noon that police confirmed no injuries or fatalities at the scene.

]]>http://rt.com/politics/245633-russia-islamic-state-fatwa/http://rt.com/politics/245633-russia-islamic-state-fatwa/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:22:44 +0000A major Russian Muslim group has issued a fatwa against the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) reviling them as ‘enemies of Islam’ and calling for the punishment of all its members as criminals.]]>

The Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia published the text of the fatwa on its website on Tuesday.

“The members of the Ulama [Islamic scholars] council, on the basis of the Koran and Sunna and other legal sources, have shown and proved that all actions of the organization that calls itself "Islamic State" are contradicting Islam – starting from the creation of the group and calls for resettlement and finishing with their cruelty and public executions,” the document reads.

“From the point of view of the Muslim canon the members of such criminal groups deserve either capital punishment or full lifelong isolation from the society,” the Russian Muslim leaders stated. However, they noted in the fatwa that every suspect must be convicted by a court verdict that would fully exclude all doubts of his or hers complicity in violence, robberies and killings.

“The followers of ISIS are mistakenly interpreting Islam as the religion of brutality and cruelty, of violence, torture and killings of all discontent,” the Russian Muslims stated. In reality, the basic principles of Islam forbid to kill civilians, prisoners and envoys – and journalists and workers of humanitarian missions can be described as the latter, they added.

Most importantly, the creation of a caliphate is only possible by approval of all Muslim communities and otherwise is considered a mutiny. “A single-sided declaration of caliphate would cause numerous competing caliphates to appear and this would cause strife and disagreement between Muslims,” the fatwa reads.

In December last year, the Russian government listed the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra Front as terrorists, outlawing membership or any support for these organizations under threat of criminal prosecution. In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry called upon all nations to recognize the two groups as terrorists, noting that such a step would be backed up by UN Security Council resolutions.

In March this year, the head of Russia’s State Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, called upon the international community to abandon double standards on terrorism and start fighting the threat in line with universally-recognized norms of international law.

Patrushev also told reporters that he and other Russian officials preferred to use the term ‘Islamic State’ in quotation marks to avoid insults to true Muslims who, in his view, had no relation to terrorists and extremists. For the same reason he called to refer to it by its original name – the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or ISIL.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245557-ukraine-maidan-probe-eu/http://rt.com/news/245557-ukraine-maidan-probe-eu/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:21:04 +0000The investigation into Maidan violence during Ukraine’s coup didn’t satisfy the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, says a report from the European Council, adding that Ukraine’s Interior Ministry was “uncooperative and obstructive.”]]>

The report specifically concentrated on the investigation of violent acts during the three months of Maidan demonstrations: Violent dispersal of the protest by Berkut riot police on November 30, 2013, clashes on January 22, 2014, which resulted in the first deaths of protesters, and February 18-21, 2014, the deadliest days of the Kiev protests.

Before the February 2014 coup, “there was no genuine attempt to pursue investigations,” said a document by the International Advisory Panel. The panel was established by the Council of Europe to review investigations into the violent incidents during the Maidan demonstrations.

“The lack of genuine investigations during the three months of the demonstrations inevitably meant that the investigations did not begin promptly and this constituted, of itself, a substantial challenge for the investigations, which took place thereafter and on which the Panel’s review has principally focused,” the report stated.

The panel added that “the appointment post-Maidan of certain officials to senior positions in the MoI [Ukraine Interior Ministry] contributed to the lack of appearance of independence.”

It also “served to undermine public confidence in the readiness of the MoI to investigate the crimes committed during Maidan.”

The EU experts call the number of investigations performed by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) on Maidan violence “wholly inadequate.”

“The Panel did not consider the allocation of investigative work between the PGO, on the one hand, and the Kyiv [Kiev] City Prosecutor’s Office and the MoI, on the other, to be coherent or efficient,” says the report.

“Nor did the Panel find the PGO’s supervision of the investigative work of the Kyiv [Kiev] City Prosecutor’s Office to have been effective.”

Cooperation by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry “was crucial to the effectiveness of the PGO investigations,” according to the document.

“There are strong grounds to believe that the MoI attitude to the PGO has been uncooperative and, in certain respects, obstructive,” says the report, adding that the “Prosecutor General’s Office didn't take all the necessary steps to ensure effective co-operation” by the Interior Ministry in the investigations.

They also found there were facts of “the grant of amnesties or pardons to law enforcement officers in relation to unlawful killings or acts of ill-treatment” of protesters during the Maidan protests.

This “would be incompatible with Ukraine’s obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention,” said the document.

“The serious investigative deficiencies identified in this Report have undermined the authorities’ ability to establish the circumstances of the Maidan-related crimes and to identify those responsible.”

In November 2013, Ukrainians took to the streets after the Ukrainian government postponed an integration deal with the EU.

The Kiev protests lasted months, escalated into street battles, and culminated in the eventual ousting of the government in an armed coup and a civil war in the east of the country.

The brutal dispersal of a protest camp on the morning of November 30 was a turning point in the ensuing events. It’s still unclear who ordered the use of force. Then President Viktor Yanukovich laid the blame on the city's police chief and sacked him. The move, however, did not stop the protest as Maidan activists started to demand the government’s resignation.

While protests and sporadic clashes didn’t stop, February saw the deadliest day in the three-month period of the Maidan unrest. A total of 77 people were killed on February 20, according to officials. Thirteen law enforcement troops died of injuries.

In the immediate aftermath of what was dubbed the February massacre, it’s still not clear who the shooters were and whose orders they were following, with both sides blaming one another.

“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Urmas Paet, who then confirmed the authenticity of the leaked call, is heard saying.

A police investigation conducted by the post-coup Kiev authorities managed to produce several suspects, all of them Berkut riot police members, who are currently being prosecuted in Ukraine. The evidence incriminating them has never been made public, with Reuters reporting that the investigation process was flawed.

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245613-us-war-terror-isis-aid/http://rt.com/op-edge/245613-us-war-terror-isis-aid/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:06:58 +0000As the war against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) rages on, the US has stepped up its air campaign, combining destructive bombs with anti-ISIS leaflets.]]>

But while US propaganda efforts are ostensibly aimed at disrupting ISIS recruitment, overall US involvement has yielded mixed results at best.

On the one hand, Washington is engaging in a psychological campaign designed to dissuade potential ISIS fighters from joining up, with leaflets depicting grisly images of young men being sent into a meat grinder. On the other hand however, the US continues to exacerbate the situation in both Iraq and Syria by providing material support, both directly and indirectly, to the very groups whom they claim to be fighting.

While the US seems to be engaged in a psychological war against ISIS, it is equally involved in a systematic campaign of sabotage against those forces that are actually fighting ISIS on the ground. And so, as it often does, Washington is playing both sides of the conflict in order to achieve an outcome to its own political advantage, and to the detriment of Syria, Iran, and other interested parties.

The US psychological war against ISIS

Since the emergence of ISIS on the world stage, much has been made of the organization’s ability to recruit fighters, produce propaganda, and effectively get its message across to the young Muslims around the world. There have been countless news stories of Muslim youths from the West eagerly joining up to fight in far flung war zones like Syria and Iraq, seemingly translating their disaffection with their own lives into an ideological identification with ISIS extremism.

But beneath the surface of such ideological explanations is the fact, publicly acknowledged by many counter-terrorism experts, that ISIS propaganda, coupled with the financial benefits the organization offers, is responsible for some of the allure of joining the fight. And so, the US has launched a full scale psychological war for the “hearts and minds” of these naïve youths and poverty-stricken potential fighters.

The Pentagon confirmed that they had dropped tens of thousands of leaflets on the Syrian city of Raqqa in an attempt to dissuade potential recruits from joining ISIS. While this may seem a relatively harmless exercise in counter-propaganda, the reality is that it is at best a poorly conceived, and at worst utterly disingenuous, attempt to counteract ISIS recruitment. Were the US serious about eradicating the cancer of ISIS in Syria, US military officials would be coordinating with their Syrian counterparts in a comprehensive attempt to destroy the organization. For while the US Air Force drops leaflets, the Syrian Arab Army has been fighting ISIS on the ground for nearly three years, paying a very high price in blood to protect its country from the internationally constituted terror organization.

US military planners understand perfectly that it is the Syrian military, not slick propaganda leaflets, which will carry the day in the war against ISIS in Syria. While perhaps useful for the public relations campaign back home, such leaflets will do little to change the tactical or strategic situation on the ground. The same goes for the recently announced expansion of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, the State Department’s attempt at “counter-messaging” ISIS propaganda on social media and in cyberspace generally.

But, while the US presents itself as pursuing a comprehensive psychological war against ISIS, its military and covert actions tell a far different story.

Fighting ISIS by arming them?

The media has been abuzz in recent months with numerous accounts of US weapons and other supplies falling directly into the hands of ISIS, providing the terror group with invaluable material support at a time when it had suffered heavy losses in both Syria and Iraq. As Naeem al-Uboudi, the spokesman for one of the main groups fighting ISIS in Tikrit told the NY Times, “We don’t trust the American-led coalition in combating ISIS... In the past, they have targeted our security forces and dropped aid to ISIS by mistake.”

Indeed, these allegations are supported dozens of accounts of airdropped US weapons being seized by ISIS. As Iraqi MP Majid al-Ghraoui noted in January, “The information that has reached us in the security and defense committee indicates that an American aircraft dropped a load of weapons and equipment to the ISIS group militants at the area of al-Dour in the province of Salahuddin... This incident is continuously happening and has also occurred in some other regions.”

Whether these incidents are simply honest mistakes by the vaunted US military with all its precision bombing capabilities, or they are indications of a more callous attempt to inflict casualties on all sides and prolong the regional war, either way they represent an abject failure of the US strategy against ISIS. But of course, the US policy failure goes much further than just mistakes on the battlefield. Rather, the entire policy of arming so-called “moderates” in Syria has led directly to the growth of ISIS into a regional power.

Since 2012, the US, primarily through the CIA, has been providing weapons and training to terrorists in Syria under the guise of arming “moderates.” Many of these allegedly moderate groups have in recent months been documented as having either disbanded or defected to ISIS, including the little publicized mass defections of former Free Syrian Army fighters. However it has happened, a vast arsenal of US-supplied weapons and other military hardware are now counted among the ISIS arsenal. So much for the US policy of ensuring the weapons don’t “fall into the wrong hands.”

So, while the US has proclaimed to be fighting ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front, they have been simultaneously arming and supporting many of the same forces which now make up much of the rank-and-file of these terror groups. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Washington: Peace broker or arms dealer?

Those who follow US foreign policy are likely unsurprised by these revelations of Washington providing arms and intensifying an already dangerous conflict. In Syria, the US has consistently argued that the Syrian government cannot be seen as a partner for peace, and so they must provide weapons to “moderates.” In Ukraine, where the US has a compliant and servile government that executes its diktats, Washington still supplies the arms, talking of peace and stability while exacerbating the war and human tragedy in East Ukraine.

Last week, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed (348-48) a resolution to provide military support in the form of weapons to Ukraine. As Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated, “The people of Ukraine are not looking for American troops. They are just looking for the weapons to defend themselves. They don't have those weapons. We do.”

Indeed, it seems that US policy is to pursue “peace” at the barrel of a US-made, US-supplied gun. As Secretary of State John Kerry explained in his usual self-contradictory manner “To get peace, you have to defend your country,” a devilishly cynical statement from the man who, entirely without irony, explained in 2014 that “you don’t just invade another country on a phony pretext in order to assert your interests.” Perhaps, rather than invading countries, the Obama administration has decided to simply provide the weapons, training, and logistical and material support in order to assert its own interests.

While Syria and Iraq face an existential struggle against the wildfire that is the Islamic State, the United States arrives, gas can in hand, to make peace. As Ukraine slides deeper into civil war, the US provides all the ingredients for a witches’ brew of violence and bloodshed.

For all its talk of psychological war against ISIS, Washington has embraced an aggressive, multi-pronged approach that leaves little doubt as to the thinking of its strategic planners: the enemy of my enemy is both friend and enemy. As Tacitus famously said of the Romans, “They make a desert and call it peace.” So too do the Americans in the blood-soaked deserts of Syria and Iraq.

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245581-nato-czech-republic-us-tanks/http://rt.com/op-edge/245581-nato-czech-republic-us-tanks/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:54:31 +0000The American military convoy called the Dragoon Ride is traveling through Europe is clearly a provocation by NATO and particularly the US, Richard Becker of the anti-war Answer Coalition told RT.]]>

NATO tanks and other army vehicles, which are part of the so-called Dragoon Ride military parade, reached Prague on Sunday. Dozens of anti-war protesters met the convoy as it rolled into the city. The Dragoon Ride march is touring six European countries. The final destination is a military base in Germany.

RT:Some people protesting the NATO parade have labeled it a provocation. What do you think about this assessment?

Richard Becker: Yes, I think it is clearly a provocation. I have just recently seen a YouTube video showing that A-10 Warthog planes were flying over one part of this convoy that is going through Eastern Europe. This is an aggressive step, another aggressive step by the US and by NATO, but particularly by the US. That was the US Army General [Ben] Hodges who is in charge of the US Army in Europe, who came up with this plan. It’s not Russia that has been the aggressor in this situation, it’s the US and NATO trying to absorb Ukraine to move closer and closer right up to the critical border of Russia that has created the crisis that we’re seeing.

RT:We have seen clear anti-NATO signs connected to this parade shown by people in Eastern Europe. But what about the governments of these countries? Is there a disconnect between the people and the governments?

RB: I think that is the case that the governments are very much tied to the US, very much under the domination of the US. Back when Germany was reunited there were assurances that were given by the US leaders at that time that they would not attempt to move NATO further eastward after the reunification of Germany. All the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, eventually all the countries in Europe have joined NATO, have been pulled into NATO and are under the tutelage and domination of the US.

RT:The Czech Republic has seen both pro- and anti-NATO sentiments during this military parade. Do you think this issue could cause a significant split in the country?

RB: I think it is very hard to tell how wide this split is, or who is on which side in terms of proportions. But there is clearly a split; there is clearly a division in the Czech Republic. Perhaps more so than in any other countries that the convoy is going through, between those who are opposing this new aggressive step by the US and by NATO and those who are in support of it.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245397-war-witness-victory-ww2/http://rt.com/news/245397-war-witness-victory-ww2/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:44:27 +0000Their tales are tense, harrowing and touching by turn – every day until Victory Day on May 9, RT will upload a mini-documentary highlighting a memorable wartime story retold by those who witnessed World War II at close quarters.]]>

There are fewer than two million people older than 85 alive in Russia today, and each year the number of those who fought in the conflict, or survived in a warzone, falls by tens of thousands. Most of those we interviewed were teenagers during the Great Patriotic War – but that makes their experiences only more vivid and shocking.

Zinaida Ivanova, a survivor of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad recalls grim details of her childhood: 125 grams of bread a day, which had to be sucked on all day as a treat, making soup from old leather shoes, and having to throw waste through the window and onto the streets. As a postscript, she says that as a result of the deprivations they suffered as children, neither her, nor her three siblings were able to have children of their own.

Igor Grebtsov talks about building a mud hut in the ruins of Stalingrad for New Year in December 1942, and then receiving his best gift ever – a pair of mittens and socks from an aunt, whom he could not thank at the time. Aleksey Nevzorov, who fought in the same battle, describes how no ordinary soldier wanted to lead the charge, and “wanting to just burrow into the ground to avoid death” as he wondered whether he would be killed by a bullet, mine or bomb.

Aleksandr Karpenko remembers surviving the Battle of Kursk, and liberating his own hometown in 1943, only to find out that his mother had died under German occupation. While Nikolay Chernov recalls getting a head wound, and lying in a field all day, as the battle in the Caucuses raged all around him. Once he recovered, Chernov, went back and volunteered again.

Vladimir Lebedev recalls his unabashed joy at destroying a German tank, as Red Army troops fought through every street of Berlin – “the hardest battle of his life.” Zhores Artyomov, a decorated veteran, his chest gleaming with medals, remembers not an act of heroism, but a single scene – a slain soldier being pressed further and further into the ground by tanks tracks, until he was as flat as the ground itself – that he says has given him a bitter memory for life.

Each story is signed off with a recollection from a young relative of the war veteran. As a counterpoint to the heroic figures sitting in their old uniforms, they reveal a more humane, and vulnerable side to a living generation that does not want to become a textbook myth.

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245585-us-yemen-policies-middle-east/http://rt.com/op-edge/245585-us-yemen-policies-middle-east/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:36:13 +0000There is media confusion about what is going on in Yemen and the broader Middle East. Pundits are pointing out that the US is looking schizophrenic with policies that back opposite sides of the fight against al-Qaeda-style extremism in Iraq and in Yemen.]]>

But it isn’t that hard to understand the divergent policies once you comprehend the underlying drivers of the fight brewing in the region.

No, it isn’t a battle between Shia and Sunni, Iranian and Arab or the much-ballyhooed Iran-Saudi stand-off. Yes, these narratives have played a part in defining ‘sides,’ but often only in the most simplistic fashion, to rally constituencies behind a policy objective. And they do often reflect some truth.

But the ‘sides’ demarcated for our consumption do not explain, for instance, why Oman or Algeria refuse to participate, why Turkey is where it is, why Russia, China and the BRICS are participants, why the US is so conflicted in its direction – and why, in a number of regional conflicts, Sunni, Shia, Islamist, secularist, liberal, conservative, Christian, Muslim, Arab and Iranian sometimes find themselves on the same side.

This is not just a regional fight – it is a global one with ramifications that go well beyond the Middle East. The region is quite simply the theatre where it is coming to a head. And Yemen, Syria and Iraq are merely the tinderboxes that may or may not set off the conflagration.

"The battle, at its very essence, in its lowest common denominator, is a war between a colonial past and a post-colonial future."

For the sake of clarity, let’s call these two axes the Neo-Colonial Axis and the Post-Colonial Axis. The former seeks to maintain the status quo of the past century; the latter strives to shrug off old orders and carve out new, independent directions.

If you look at the regional chessboard, the Middle East is plump with governments and monarchies backed to the hilt by the United States, Britain and France. These are the West’s “proxies” and they have not advanced their countries in the least – neither in self-sufficiencies nor in genuine democratic or developmental milestones. Indebted to ‘Empire’s’ patronage, these states form the regional arm of the Neo-Colonial Axis.

On the other side of the Mideast’s geopolitical fault line, Iran has set the standard for the Post-Colonial Axis – often referred to as the 'Resistance Axis.' Based on the inherent anti-imperialist worldview of the 1979 Islamic revolution, and also as a result of US/UK-driven isolating sanctions and global politics, Tehran has bucked the system by creating an indigenous system of governance, advancing its developmental ambitions and crafting alliances that challenge the status quo.

Iran’s staunchest allies have typically included Syria, Hezbollah and a handful of Palestinian resistance groups. But today, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring counter-revolutions – and the sheer havoc these have created - other independent players have discovered commonalities with the Resistance Axis. In the region, these include Iraq, Algeria and Oman. While outside the Mideast, we have seen Russia, China and other non-aligned nations step in to challenge the Neo-Colonial order.

Neo-Colonial Axis hits an Arab Spring wall

Today, the Neo-Colonials simply can’t win. They lack two essential components to maintain their hegemony: economy and common objectives.

Nowhere is that more clear than in the Middle East, where numerous initiatives and coalitions have floundered shortly after inception.

Once Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in Libya, all parties went their own way and the country fractured. In Egypt, a power struggle pitted Sunni against Sunni, highlighting the growing schism between two Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) patrons Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In Syria, a heavyweight line-up of Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, the US and UK could not pull together a coherent regime-change plan or back the same horse.

In the vacuum created by these competing agendas, highly-organized al-Qaeda-style extremists stepped in to create further divergence among old allies.

Western hegemons – the original colonials and imperialists – grew fatigued, alarmed, and sought a way out of the increasingly dangerous quagmire. To do so, they needed to strike a compromise with the one regional state that enjoyed the necessary stability and military prowess to lead the fight against extremism from within the region. That would be their old adversary, Iran.

But the West is geographically distant from the Mideast, and can take these losses to a certain extent. For regional hegemons, however, the retreat of their Western patrons was anathema. As we can see, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have recently rushed to resolve their differences so they can continue to design the region’s direction in this Western vacuum.

These counter-revolutionary states, however, share grandiose visions of their own regional influence - each ultimately only keen to achieve their own primacy. And the continued ascendance of Iran has really grated: the Islamic Republic seems to have moved from strength to strength during this ‘Arab Spring,’ picking up new allies – regional and global – and consolidating its gains.

For Saudi Arabia, in particular, Iran’s incremental victories go beyond the pale. Riyadh has, after all, staked its regional leadership role on a sectarian and ethnic divide, representing Arab and Sunni stakeholders against “Iranian” and “Shiite” ones. Now suddenly, not only are the Americans, British and French dallying with the Iranians, but the GCC itself has been split down the center over the issue of ‘engagement vs. confrontation’ with the Islamic Republic.

Worse yet, the Saudi efforts to participate in the overthrow of Gaddafi, squash uprisings in Bahrain, control political outcomes in Yemen, destabilize Syria, divide Iraq and conquer Egypt seem to have come to naught.

In all instances, they have yet to see cemented, meaningful gains – and each quagmire threatens to unravel further and deplete ever more Saudi funds

Today, the Saudis find themselves surrounded by the sickly fruits of their various regional interventions. They have endured recent attacks by violent extremists on their Iraqi and Jordanian borders – many of these recipients of past Saudi funding – and now find themselves challenged on a third border, in Yemen, by a determined constituency that seeks to halt Saudi interventions.

Beyond that, Syria and Lebanon have slipped out of Riyadh’s grip, little Qatar seeks to usurp the traditional Saudi role in the Persian Gulf, Egypt dallies with Russia and China, and Pakistan and Turkey continue a meaningful engagement with Iran.

Meanwhile, the Iranians don’t have to do much of anything to raise the Saudi ire. Iran has stepped up its regional role largely because of the Saudi-led counter-revolution, and has cautiously thwarted Riyadh’s onslaughts where it could. It has buoyed allies – much like NATO or the GCC would in similar circumstances – but with considerably less aggression and while cleaving to the letter of international law.

The Saudis see Iranian hands everywhere in the region, but this is a fantasy at best. Iran has simply stepped into an opportunity when it arises, meet the threats coming its way, and utilize all its available channels to blunt the Saudi advances in various military and political theaters.

Even the US intelligence community’s annual security assessment – a report card that regularly highlights the “Iranian threat” - concludes in 2015 that the Islamic Republic of Iran has "intentions to dampen sectarianism, build responsive partners, and deescalate tensions with Saudi Arabia.”

Yet all we hear these days blaring from Western and Arab media headlines is "Shia sectarianism, Iranian expansionism and Persian Empire."

Tellingly, the American intelligence assessment launches its section on “terrorism” with the following: “Sunni violent extremists are gaining momentum and the number of Sunni violent extremist groups, members, and safe havens is greater than at any other point in history.”

And US officials admit: many of these Sunni extremists have been assisted and financed by no other than Washington allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

The Yemeni theater – a final battleground?

A senior official within a Resistance Axis state tells me: “The biggest mistake the Saudis made is to attack Yemen. I didn’t think they were that stupid.”

In the past week, the Saudis have cobbled together yet another Neo-Colonial ‘coalition’ – this time to punish Yemenis for ousting their made-in-Riyadh transitional government and pushing into the southern city of Aden.

The main Saudi adversaries are the Houthis, a group of northern, rural highlanders who have amassed a popular base throughout the north and other parts of Yemen over the course of ten years and six wars.

The Saudis (and the US) identify the Houthis as ‘Shiites’ and ‘Iranian-backed’ in order to galvanize their own bases in the region. But Iran has had little to do with the Houthis since their emergence as a political force in Yemen. And WikiLeaks showed us that US officials know this too. A 2009 cable from the US Embassy in Riyadh notes that Yemen’s former Saudi-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh provided “false or exaggerated information on Iranian assistance to the Houthis in order to enlist direct Saudi involvement and regionalize the conflict.”

And allegations that Iran arms the Houthis also fall flat. Another secret cable makes clear: “Contrary to ROYG (Republic of Yemen Government) claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most local political analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself.”

Saleh was deposed in 2011 as a result of Arab Spring pressures, and in a twist worthy of the complicated Middle East, the wily former president now appears to be backing his former adversaries, the Houthis, against his old patrons, the Saudis.

The Houthis are adherents of the Muslim Zaydi sect – which falls somewhere between Sunnism and Shiism, and is followed by around 40 percent of Yemenis. Saleh, who fought the Houthis in half a dozen wars, is also a Zaydi – evidence that Yemen’s internal strife is anything but sectarian.

In fact, it could be argued that the Houthi – or Ansarallah movement – are a central constituency of Yemen’s ‘Arab Spring.' Their demands since 2003 have, after all, largely been about ending disenfranchisement, gaining economic, political and religious rights, eliminating corruption, railing against the twin evils of America and Israel (a popular Post-Colonial Arab sentiment), and becoming stakeholders in the state.

To ensure the balance continued in their favor during the Arab Spring, the Neo-Colonial Axis installed a puppet transitional leader upon Saleh’s departure – an unelected president whose term ran out a year ago.

Then a few months ago, the Houthis – allegedly with the support of Saleh and his tens of thousands of followers – ousted their rivals in the puppet regime and took over the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. When the Saudis threatened retaliation, the Houthis pushed further southward…which brings us to the war front amassing against Yemen today.

This is not a battle the Saudis and their Neo-Colonial Axis can win. Airstrikes alone cannot turn this war, and it is unlikely that Riyadh and its coalition partners can expect troops on the ground to be any more successful - if they are even deployed.

The Houthis have learned over the past decade to fight both conventional and guerilla wars. This relatively small band of highlanders managed in 2009 to push 30 kilometers into Saudi territory and take over several dozen Saudi towns. When coalition-partner Egypt last fought a war with ground troops in Yemen, it became Gamal Abdel Nasser's 'Vietnam' and nearly bankrupted the state.

Even majority-Sunni Pakistan, a traditional pipeline for staffing GCC armies, seems wary about this conflict. It too is fighting elsewhere on the same side as the Houthis, Iranians, Syrians, Iraqis – against violent Sunni extremists inside its borders and from their bases in neighboring Afghanistan. No amount of Saudi money will quench the anger of militant-weary Pakistanis if their government commits to this Yemeni fight – against the very groups (Houthis) that are battling al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

And, yes, it is ironic that the United States is now providing assistance and intelligence for the Saudi-led coalition - against the Houthis, who are fighting al-Qaeda.

But as mentioned earlier, this is not Washington’s neighborhood, and it does not approach this fight with the same goals of its close ally, Saudi Arabia.

The Resistance Axis official explains:

“The Americans see all outcomes as good: If the Houthis win, they will help get rid of al-Qaeda in Yemen. If the Saudis win, well, these are still the US’s allies. And if both sides enter a protracted war, that is “not a problem either,” referring to the ever-present US interest of selling weapons in conflict zones.

Despite a global ban, the United States has sold the Saudis $640 million worth of cluster bombs over the past two years, some of which have been used to carpet bomb parts of Yemen in the past few days. The cluster munitions were part of an overall $67 billion worth of arm deals with Saudi Arabia since the Arab uprisings kicked off in 2011.

The Iranians, meanwhile, are not doing much of anything, except insisting – like the Russians and others – that the bombardment of Yemen is criminal and that Yemenis need to solve their own problems via an internal dialogue.

And why should they make any moves? The Saudis are digging their own graves right now – and hastening the demise of the entire Neo-Colonial project in the Middle East, to boot.

“Tehran realizes that the fact that Riyadh had to bring together a major coalition to fight a group that is only on the outskirts of Iranian influence is a victory in itself,” says the US-based, conservative risk-analysis group, Stratfor.

Riyadh’s move to attack Yemen has just dragged the not-so-financially-flush Kingdom into yet another military quagmire, and this time directly, bypassing proxies altogether. Every airstrike in Yemen – and it is clear in the first few days that dozens of civilians, including children, have been killed – threatens to draw more adherents to the Houthi cause.

And every day that the Houthis are tied up in this battle, AQAP gets an opportunity to cement its hold elsewhere in the country. The net winner in this conflict is unlikely to be Saudi Arabia, but it may just be al-Qaeda – which is guaranteed to draw the Post-Colonial Axis into the strategically vital waterways surrounding Yemen.

The Arab League, under Saudi Arabia’s arm-twisting, just upped the ante by demanding that only a complete Houthi surrender (laying down weapons and withdrawing) would end the airstrikes. This ultimatum leaves very little room to jumpstart dialogue, and shows shocking disregard for the normal goals of military engagement, which try to leave ‘negotiation windows’ open.

It may be that the Saudis, who have rapidly lost influence and control in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, and other states in the past few years, have decided to go to the wall in Yemen.

Or it may just be some posturing to create momentum and bolster bruised egos.

But conflict has a way of balancing itself out – as in Syria and Iraq – by drawing other, unforeseen elements into the fray. With all the conflicts raging in the Middle East and encroaching on their borders, the Post-Colonial Axis has been forced to take a stand. And they bring to the field something their adversaries lack: common objectives and efficiency.

This is possibly the first time in the modern Mideast we have seen this kind of efficiency from within. And I speak specifically of Iran and its allies, both regional and external. They cannot ignore the threats that emanate from conflict, any more than the west can ignore the jihadi genie that threatens from thousands of miles away. So this Post-Colonial Axis moves further into the region to protect itself, bringing with it lessons learned and laser-focused common goals.

The Neo-Colonials will hit a wall in Yemen, just as they have in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Their disparate objectives will ensure that. The main concern as we enter yet another storm in Yemen is whether a flailing Empire will turn ugly at the eleventh hour and launch a direct war against its actual adversary, the Post-Colonial Axis. The Saudis are a real wild card - as are the Israelis - and may try to light that fuse. When the threat is existential, anything goes.

Yes, a regional war is as much a possibility over Yemen as it was over Syria. But this battle lies on a direct border of Saudi Arabia - ground zero for both violent extremism and the most virulently sectarian and ethnocentric elements of the anti-Resistance crowd - and so promises to deliver yet another decisive geopolitical shift in the Mideast. From Yemen, as from any confrontation between the two global blocs, a new regional reality is likely to emerge: what the Americans might call "the birth pangs of a new Middle East."

And Yemen may yet become the next Arab state to enter a Post-Colonial order.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245601-nauru-detention-australia-abuses/http://rt.com/news/245601-nauru-detention-australia-abuses/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:30:12 +0000Staff members at the Nauru refugee detention center, where Australia keeps its asylum seekers, spoke about violations including rapes as early as November 2013. They are reportedly prepared to testify before parliament.]]>

The workers will speak before a senate committee, which has been tasked with getting to the bottom of the issue amid mass protests against immigrant treatment in Australia.

Dozens of current and former workers on Nauru are prepared to help the investigation, the Guardian Australia reported on Tuesday. They told the newspaper they can provide working documents, intelligence and incident reports dating back to November 2013.

Their testimony would prove the government was aware of human rights abuses in the camp long before October 2014, when it ordered a special inquiry into refugee rights abuses, they said.

Australia has a harsh policy towards asylum-seekers arriving illegally in the country. They are detained and housed off-shore in detention camps in island nations like Nauru and Papua New Guinea, while their status is processed.

Successive Australian cabinets have made restrictions on resettlement increasingly tight, and the current government of Prime Minister Tony Abbot is stonewalling immigrants by offering significant compensation to those who volunteer to return to their countries of origin. Australia is also prepared to pay other nations willing to shelter them.

Nauru detention center consists of two fenced-off tent camps designed to hold up to 1,200 detainees. Reports of harsh conditions and abuses at the facility prompted the Australian government to commission a review.

Former Integrity Commissioner Philip Moss presented his report two weeks ago, confirming allegations that asylum seekers, including children, were subjected to rape, physical abuse and other forms of maltreatment at the facility.

Some women were forced to provide sexual favors to get access to showers, the report confirmed. It also added that a number of sexual abuse cases were not reported, because of social stigma and the belief among detainees that they wouldn’t get justice.

The document also disproved accusations against the staff of the charity Save the Children, who were banned from the camp over allegations of inciting protest among refugees. The charity demanded an apology from the government over the expulsion of its nine members from the facility following the publication of the Moss report.

Also some 150 pages of interviews with refugees, which were the basis of the Moss report but not part of it, were leaked to the media, further backing the accusations.

The revelations sparked mass protest in Australia last week, as some 15,000 people marched in a number of cities to speak out against the government's immigration policies. The Australian senate ordered a committee be set up to look into the matter closely.

The Senate commission will have the authority to interview camp personnel and overrule the non-disclosure clauses of their contracts, which normally prevent them from discussing their work and can lead to up to two years in prison if they do so.

Both Australia and Nauru pledged to cooperate with the Australian Senate investigation.

The detention center at Nauru was first established in 2001, but was closed in 2007 by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who wanted to change Australia's asylum seeker policies. It was reopened in August 2012 and has since seen several cases of rioting, including an incident in July 2011 that resulted in some 200 detainees escaping. A large part of the facility was also destroyed by fire during the violence.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245497-greece-russia-premier-cooperation/http://rt.com/business/245497-greece-russia-premier-cooperation/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:23:16 +0000Western anti-Russia sanctions are a “road to nowhere” while dialogue and diplomacy is the way to find solutions for major problems, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told TASS.]]>

The Greek premier says economic war is a "dead-end policy,” according to TASS which interviewed Tsipras ahead of his visit to Moscow on April 8.

"We do not agree with sanctions. I believe that this is a road to nowhere. I support the point of view that there is a need for a dialogue and diplomacy, we should sit down at the negotiating table and find the solutions to major problems," Tsipras was quoted as saying.

The prime minister said that right after he won the election he received a message from European Council President Donald Tusk who almost took for granted Greece’s position in favor of sanctions. The newly-elected Prime Minister then told the EU Council and the EU foreign policy chief that the situation had changed, and they should ask the new Greek government before taking decisions.

New level of cooperation

There is a chance of bringing the trade between Russia and Greece to a new level, Tsipras suggests, saying that substantial cooperation would allow Greece to export its agricultural goods to the Russian Federation. Trade relations between the two countries have been ruined as previous Greek governments were involved in the sanctions policy. Russia was Greece's biggest trading partner outside the EU with turnover in excess of €5.7 billion in 2013. However, the Greek economy has been seriously damaged as a result of the food embargo last year. Greek producers estimated losses from fruit and conserves at more than €178 million over the course of the year.

Relations between Greece and Russia have great potential, especially in terms of energy and tourism, Tsipras told TASS. The two countries have close links mainly through tourism; about 1.2 million Russians visited Greece on holiday in 2012.

2016 which will be a cross promotion year for Russia and Greece, and is a great opportunity according to Prime Minister Tsipras.

Meanwhile, this year Greece along with Russia will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War Two which is of great historical importance to both the Russian and Greek people, the Greek Premier underlined.

Bridge between West and Russia

The Greek prime minister’s visit to Moscow will lay a new foundation for Russian-Greek relations that have been “frozen” recently.

"It is a real opportunity to make a restart, give new impetus to Russian-Greek relations that have very deep roots in history and are forged in the common struggle of our people,” Tsipras told TASS.

Russia and Greece are currently in a general risky geopolitical situation with common challenges that need to be considered thoroughly together, according to premier. “We have to consider how our nations and countries can actually cooperate in multiple fields, such as the economy, energy, trade, agriculture… We should explore how our collaboration can be constructive as I really believe that Greece, as a member of the EU, can be a bridge, a bridge between the West and Russia,” Tsipras said.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245549-women-unhappy-sex-life/http://rt.com/uk/245549-women-unhappy-sex-life/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:11:00 +0000Women in Britain are experiencing widespread disinterest in sex, with a nearly half of sexually active women reporting at least one problem in the past year, according to a University of Cambridge professor.]]>

Some 40 percent of men, too, have experienced problems. But unlike women, they don’t attribute their bedroom issues to a lack of interest.

While the population is perpetually confronted with lithe and athletic actors performing steamy and passionate sex scenes, the reality of Britain’s bedrooms presents a far bleaker picture.

Analysis of the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL), by University of Cambridge statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter for the MailOnline, showed that a large proportion of sexually active adults have experienced problems in the bedroom during the past year.

For women, the problems identified by the professor included a lack of interest or enjoyment in sex, physical pain as a result of intercourse and experiencing no sexual arousal.

Of the women who said they experienced problems, a third said they were lacking in any form of interest in sex, and one in 12 said they had issues climaxing.

Men also experienced problems, with 15 percent having suffered from premature ejaculation at some point, and a further one in eight having trouble getting an erection.

Spiegelhalter also found that although it is common to experience a deflated sex-life as we get older, a great proportion of 16-24 year-olds also reported having issues in the bedroom: some 45 percent of women and 35 percent of men.

Men, however, were found to be statistically far more likely to show an interest in sex, with only half the number of men reporting a lack of interest or arousal than women.

This discovery could explain one of the most common issues for couples: one partner being more interested than the other, which was reported by one in four couples.

Further problems included seven percent of women and 10 percent of men claiming their partners did not share their sexual preferences.

While the sex may be sub-par, few Brits admitted to lacking emotional attraction to their partners – just two percent of women and one percent of men.

The analysis also found 11 percent of men said they had paid for sex at some point in their lives, with the total number of men having visited a prostitute in the past five years up to four percent.

The demographic most likely to be paying for sex were single Londoners aged between 25 and 34, although two thirds of respondents said they had done so while traveling abroad.

For women the figure was much lower, at around one in 1,000.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245569-russia-member-chinese-bank/http://rt.com/business/245569-russia-member-chinese-bank/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:00:36 +0000Russia will become a founding member in the China-led $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on April 14, according to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.]]>

At least 44 countries have applied for membership in the AIIB with the rights of founding countries. The initial receipt of applications will be completed on Tuesday, March 31.

On March 28 Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Russia has applied to participate in the AIIB as a founding member.

Applications to join the AIIB were also submitted by South Korea and a number of leading European economies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

China's Ministry of Finance welcomed Kyrgyzstan’s application to join AIIB on Tuesday. The country is expected to become a bank member on April 9.

Sweden will also apply to join the bank, the country’s finance minister said Monday. Thus, Sweden has become the latest European country to join the institution despite concerns of the US.

Experts consider the AIIB a potential rival to the US-based World Bank. Earlier in March US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned that US-based international financial institutions risk losing “international credibility and influence.”

Meanwhile the Japan has abstained from becoming a founder member in the China-led bank, said Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso.

“We have no other choice but to be very careful about participation [in AIIB – Ed.] ," Aso said quoted by the Kyodo news agency.

Japan insists that the terms of joining AIIB should include the establishment of lending rules with due account for social consequences, as well as ensuring transparency of their issuance in order to avoid corruption, he added. Tokyo also insists on the separate consideration of each of the incoming projects.

At the same time Aso didn’t rule out the possibility of the country’s future participation in AIIB, saying that Japan plans to "watch the bank’s development."

Taiwan has also announced it would apply for membership despite the animosity and lack of formal diplomatic relations between the island and China.

On March 27 Emerging Markets reported that China had rejected North Korea’s application saying there was no way the country could join the AIIB as it cannot provide detailed information about the state of its economy and financial markets. However, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had no official information North Korea’s was being refused bank membership.

The Asian Bank for infrastructure investment (AIIB) was established in 2014 by China. The bank will finance infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific Region; its headquarters will be in Beijing. The initial subscribed capital of AIIB will amount to $50 billion and is planned to be increased to $100 billion.

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245545-iran-nuclear-weapon-negotiations-switzerland/http://rt.com/op-edge/245545-iran-nuclear-weapon-negotiations-switzerland/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 13:55:01 +0000If P5+1 talks with Iran succeed, a new page in Iran-US relations can be opened and increase positive diplomatic opportunities between the two countries and other states in the region, Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian-American Council told RT.]]>

There have been three days of exhaustive talks on an Iranian nuclear deal in Switzerland with the deadline of Tuesday. Diplomats held around 25 meetings on Sunday. For Iran, a deal would signal the end of nine years of sanctions and isolation.

RT:There's been much effort, with all sides citing progress and sticking points. How do you assess the possibility of a deal?

Jamal Abdi: I’m pretty confident we’re going to see a deal. I don’t think the parties have got this far and resolve this much, this thing is almost done, in order to see a collapse. I think that this is a moment for potential brinkmanship, attempts to get the best possible deal, the last mile of the race. But when this is all said and done we are going to see a deal.

RT:What about the fact that some of the diplomats have left Lausanne. Is it something to worry about?

JA: That it is a reflection that on some of these issues they are still working through them. They are not ready to sign on the line and do a ceremony quite yet. I think there is a little bit of frustration that this hasn’t been completely resolved yet. The goal obviously was to get it done by Tuesday. That being said, it’s clear that diplomats flying out are prepared to fly right back in as soon as they overcome these last remaining hurdles. So hopefully we’ll see a return flight from some of these people.

RT:Iran's main condition is for sanctions to be lifted. Do you think that's realistic? Will Iran walk away if it doesn’t happen?

JA: For the P5+1 [Russia, the US, the UK, China, France+ Germany] the bottom line was a deal that ensures Iran doesn’t get nuclear weapons. And the way they want to do that is ensure there is one year breakout time for Iran. So if they started cheating, it would take a full year in order to just get the fuel for a nuclear weapon, and there’s enough confidence that they will achieve that objective. For Iran the bottom line here is to get sanctions lifted. And if they can’t get the sanctions lifted or if they can’t get a deal where they are able to bring it back home and show the practical benefits of making these really strange compromises on their nuclear program - that would be a deal killer. That being said, I think that there is intense technical negotiation. Dealing with the UN sanctions is no easy task to accomplish and really devising a mechanism where the sanctions get lifted but there still is some means of putting the sanctions back into place if the deal falls apart. I think that is really where things are hinged, where a creative solution hopefully will materialize in order to resolve everybody’s concerns.

RT:We've been seeing a shift in Western attitudes towards Iran with the US, particularly, more willing to engage than it has for years. What's caused this turnaround?

JA: I think the decisive factor was the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who took this message to the public and said: “We want to engage with the outside world; we want to reflect the desires of the Iranian people to be engaged.” And you couple that with the situation in Washington where you have a president who came in the office, President Obama, campaigning on the notion that he was going to engage the Iranians and make up for some of the missed opportunities of the Bush years in which there were opportunities to start to bridge the gap with Iran and end this long standoff- these opportunities were missed. Now we have a window here where you have the new Iranian president; you have Obama with two years left, the stars sort of aligned. But it all hinged on this one issue that is not even the totality of the issues between two countries, but this nuclear issue. And if we can fix the nuclear issue we might begin to turn the page and shift the paradigm, and see increased, positive opportunities for diplomacy between the US and Iran, and other states in the region.

MORE:

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245553-nsa-headquarters-gate-attack/http://rt.com/op-edge/245553-nsa-headquarters-gate-attack/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 13:29:46 +0000Those who attacked that NSA in well-guarded Fort Meade sought to get attention, Daniel Wagner, CEO of Country Risk Solutions, told RT. If they wanted to have a greater impact on the US public or pose thereat, they would’ve gone for a soft target.]]>

One person has been killed after a stolen car was rammed into the gates of the National Security Agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, near the US capital. It's the second attack on the NSA headquarters this month after a shooting outside an office in the compound at the beginning of March.

RT:The FBI has already ruled out terrorism. How do you think they've managed to establish that so quickly?

Daniel Wagner: That’s the question I have as well. What seems more of an interesting question to me is why more incidents like this are not happening? Is it because the intelligence agencies are so good? Which is probably the case. Or is it because those who mean to make such attacks maybe are not quite so good. I recently looked at a report put out by the Heritage Foundation. They reviewed the number of terrorist attacks against US interests between 1969 and 2009. It pointed out that of all the terrorist attacks in the world less than 8 percent were directed against US targets and of those about 43 percent were directed specifically against military targets. So if someone was inclined to do that, it seems consistent that it would be in fact directed against the military institution, the remainder being against businesses and individuals… It seems to me more likely that it’s some individuals who are interested in grabbing attention.

RT:It's the second violent incident at the NSA's main facility this month. Terrorism was also ruled out then too. So why and who is targeting the complex?

DW: There has of course been a lot of news out there from Mr. Snowden and others about what the NSA may or may not have been responsible for in the past. It seems to me that it makes them a target of those who might be inclined to do some harm or attempt to do some harm against the organization. It also grabs headlines. Exactly what we are doing now is reporting about it. So whoever might be inclined to do so can get the most bang for the buck by trying to attack such organizations.

RT:Is there a pattern emerging with these attacks, and can they be connected to any particular NSA activity?

DW: Not that I’m aware of. For me the bigger issue in the US is how long it will be before there are some attacks against soft targets. Its attacks against soft targets that represent a greater threat. So whether it’s a shopping mall or a movie theatre, a train or a bus - these are basically unprotected. And if someone was inclined to do something it seems to me that that is a greater threat and it would probably have a greater impact on the American public than some attempted attack on a very well-guarded institution like the NSA.

RT:So it was a couple of lone wolves carrying out those attacks rather than a sort of planned attack. Is that how you see it?

DW: Yes, and you know other statistics show again from the Heritage Foundation that between 2001 and 2009 one in four attacks against the US homeland were from lone wolves or from homegrown sources. So that clearly is significant and growing threat and I think it’s going to grow more significantly in the future.

RT:Fort Meade is probably one of America's most-secure complexes. What would compel anyone to do something like this?

DW: It depends on who’s doing it and what the reasons are. But clearly that has to be part of it. Because what kind of success is an attacker going to have on an institution like Fort Meade? It’s one of the best guarded institutions in the US. And of course it ended in an outside gate in this case. So it seems to me that if someone really wanted to have an impact they probably would go for a softer target.

]]>http://rt.com/politics/245577-russia-memorial-ngo-stalin/http://rt.com/politics/245577-russia-memorial-ngo-stalin/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 13:10:19 +0000The head of the Russian NGO that specializes in the investigation of Stalinist purges has voiced concern over the growing popularity of the late Soviet dictator, as demonstrated by public opinion polls.]]>

“This is a very troubling signal. And it is a testimony not even of the citizens’ attitude to Stalin, but rather of the relations between the state and a person. Stalin is perceived as a symbol of a powerful and potent state. The fact that Stalin and his policies were inhumane becomes of secondary importance,” the head of Memorial, Arseny Roginsky, said in comments to Interfax.

The activist added that he saw this as a very dangerous tendency.

Roginsky’s March statement was drawn by the release of the latest research on the attitude to Stalin in the Russian community, conducted by the independent pollster Levada Center in late March this year. According to the survey, the share of those who confessed their respect to Stalin increased from 23 percent in 2010 to 30 percent this year. The number of those who described their attitude as “fascination” and “sympathy” remained unchanged at 2 and 7 percent respectively.

When pollsters asked the public if they would like a monument to Joseph Stalin to be erected in Russia for the 70th anniversary of the victory in WWII, 37 percent said they had a positive attitude to the idea (compared to 24 percent in 2010)and 27 percent said they did not like it (36 percent in 2010).

In late February this year, Memorial criticized a proposal to erect a monument to Stalin in Moscow and to rename the city of Volgograd as Stalingrad.

“No city can be named after a man who has been an organizer, initiator and perpetrator of a mass terror that exterminated Russian peasants in the years of collectivization, and by whose orders over 700,000 people were executed in 1937 and 1938 alone,” Roginsky said back then. “In other words, we cannot name a city after a criminal.”

The controversy surrounding Stalin’s name and his role in Russian history is a popular topic and has been used by various political forces in Russia in recent years. In 2013, leftist parties proposed renaming the city of Volgograd back to Stalingrad, claiming that this was the name used by the city’s defenders during the war and that Stalingrad is better-known around the world.

However, both the general public and the Russian officials rejected the idea. Polls showed that 60 percent of Russians were against the renaming. President Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said in an interview that Kremlin officials had never considered renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad and did not plan to put this issue on the agenda in the future.

Brand has spoken out against the media’s “stigmatizing” coverage of Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot who is alleged to have deliberately crashed flight 4U 9525 into the French Alps.

In the latest episode of his YouTube show, The Trews, he attacks FOX News’ coverage of the crash, branding the channel a “propaganda machine” that fuels the causes of mental health issues.

Brand urges viewers to look past the co-pilot’s mental health issues as a cause of the crash and focus on it as an internal issue.

After analyzing the channel’s coverage of the tragedy, Brand claims the news anchor “has an assertion” that mental illness is about “otherness,” suggesting it is not a common condition.

In one broadcast, the FOX News anchor said Lubitz “looks like someone who’d rather crash a party than crash a plane,” when referring to an image of the co-pilot smiling.

Blasting the anchors take on mental illness, Brand said, “So far from being something weird, peculiar, uncommon, it’s some normal thing that’s happening all the time.”

The reason we are now in a “mental illness plague” is because of those “in power,” Brand says. “FOX News is what causes mental illnesses.”

FOX News is a “propaganda” system which “separates us from one another and tells us the way to solve our individual problems is through purchasing, through identifying primarily through our role as consumers,” Brand claims.

The channel condemns those “who are weaker,” Brand adds.

@rustyrockets not many people seem bright enough to realise this is actually a go at the media's irresponsible coverage of this tragedy.

As the investigation of the crash is still in its early stages, “we’ll never know Lubitz’s state of mind while he was in flight,” Pete Etchells, lecturer in biological psychology at Bath Spa University told the Guardian.

Etchells told the paper it is “irresponsible” for media to make claims Lubtiz “deliberately crashed the plane because of reason X or Y.”

One Twitter user said: “Why is CNN treating Lubitz with such sympathy? He is a mass murderer. All terrorists have mental health issues.”

“CNN can you stop reporting mental illness to get sympathy as to why Lubitz killed everyone? Where’s your integrity?” one user asked.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, announced on Friday his party would invest £3.5 billion in mental healthcare in England if they return to office after May’s general election.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245521-austerity-impact-general-election/http://rt.com/uk/245521-austerity-impact-general-election/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 12:36:38 +0000The government’s special adviser on poverty has denounced both the Conservatives and Labour for failing to clearly outline their planned austerity agenda to voters in the run-up to the general election.]]>

Speaking to the Independent on Monday, Chair of the Commission on Social Mobility and Child Poverty Alan Milburn warned all parties have a “responsibility” to be honest with prospective voters about the likely societal impact of their proposed cuts.

“If you have been through a period of economic turbulence and the books are still not balanced, the challenge for all the political parties is to prove they have both the competence and the plans to deliver. Detail here may not be the politicians’ friend, but it is the voters’ friend,” he said.

Milburn argued leading politicians in Britain are risking an “inter-generational war” by preserving perks for gilded pensioners while weakening state support for young working adults.

He said both Labour and the Conservatives remain entrenched in their “comfort zones” and are currently appealing to their core voters with tired and predictable policy proposals relating to the economy and the National Health Service (NHS).

His sharp criticism coincides with the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) call for both parties to be more transparent about their tax and spending plans post May 7.

The think tank also dismissed Prime Minister David Cameron’s suggestion that a Labour government would increase taxes by over £3,000 (US$4,440) for the average working household over the next five years.

Speaking to the Independent, Milburn suggested the Conservative Party must come clean on the details of its proposed £12 billion in welfare cuts.

A series of options compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions, leaked to the BBC last week, include a regional benefits cap and the taxing of disability benefits.

Nevertheless, ministers argue that firm decisions are yet to be made.

Milburn, a Blairite and Labour ex-Health Secretary, stressed with an economic recovery underway the most important question for Britain is “what is the shape of the recovery, and what social benefit accrues from it?”

He said the election is currently polarizing into a dual-pronged debate regarding the economy and the NHS.

Millburn said he would like to know exactly where each party is placing its bets. He stressed at present parties’ spending and tax plans remain shrouded in secrecy.

The IFS was also critical of both parties’ fiscal plans, warning the British public are largely in the dark about what precise economic path Chancellor George Osborne and Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls would take following the election.

The think tank said there is “real uncertainty” regarding Labour’s economic policy proposals, while the Conservatives have been somewhat clearer in outlining what they hope to achieve.

The IFS also hit out at Cameron for his £3,028 Labour “tax bombshell” claim.

“There is little value in bandying around numbers which suggest that either party would increase taxes by an average of £3,000 for each working household,” it said.

The IFS’ criticism was echoed by Chris Leslie, Shadow Chief Treasury Secretary, who said, “This is a disastrous and embarrassing start to David Cameron's campaign. Within hours of making totally false claims about Labour on the steps of Downing Street, the independent IFS has totally undermined them.”

During his interview with the Independent, Milburn said political parties in Britain are guilty of “political expediency.” He argued retaining free TV licenses and bus passes for well-off pensioners might score political points, but it would also further impact on British society.

The Milburn added Britain now has a more serious problem with low paid work than unemployment.

He went on to draw comparison between cushioned wealthy pensioners and 25 year olds enduring “a 50 percent fall in the home ownership rate.”

He predicted that Conservative proposals to freeze benefits for those of working age would impact heavily upon low-paid workers and reduce people’s incentive to work.

Milburn dismissed Labour leader Ed Miliband’s claim that Britain has shifted somewhat to the left, claiming the state’s political landscape is not dissimilar to that which existed when ex-Labour PM Tony Blair won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election.

“Elections are won in the center,” he said.

“The odd and striking thing is that there seems to be a gap in the market in the middle.”

The first poll to be published in the wake of the general election campaign kickoff revealed the Tories hold a marginal two-point lead over the Labour Party. However, it suggested Miliband is closing in on Cameron.

Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft’s most recent survey indicated the Tories had 36 percent of the vote, while Labour stood at 34 percent.

The Liberal Democrats shed two points standing at 6 percent, while UKIP suffered a similar fall to ten percent. The Green Party moved ahead of the Liberal Democrats, up two points to 7 percent. Meanwhile, Scotland’s SNP lagged behind at 4 percent.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245481-spain-face-transplant-hospital/http://rt.com/news/245481-spain-face-transplant-hospital/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 12:14:47 +0000A Spanish hospital claims it has successfully performed the most complex ‘face transplant’ ever. The medics managed to reconstruct the lower part of the face of the man who was terribly afflicted by a disease.]]>

Physicians in Barcelona performed what they call a 'face transplant', although no information about a donor was made available.

The 27-hour-long surgery was performed at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital back in February, the hospital said in a statement.

It was conducted by a huge team of 45, which included physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists and other health professionals.

"This is the first time that a transplant of this complexity is performed in the world," the statement said.

The 45-year-old patient has suffered for 20 years from arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between arteries and veins, bypassing the capillary system. The condition can cause intense pain or bleeding and lead to serious complications.

The man, who didn’t want to be identified, had mass deformation of his tissue.

"The patient, due to the evolution of his illness, had important functional alterations, such a vision and speech problems, and the risk of severe bleeding that put his life in danger," the hospital said.

The medics managed to reconstruct his lower face, neck, mouth, tongue and pharynx.

"The patient evolution after the surgery was successful, similar to any transplant patient at the hospital. Now he is already at home and only comes to the hospital to do routine checkups,” added the hospital.

Before treatment in Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron, the man consulted several other hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School in the United States. However, all of them considered him inoperable. Only Barcelona’s medics took the case, saying that the surgery was his only treatment option.

This is not the first successful face transplant carried by a team of Vall d'Hebron hospital. In 2010 the medics performed the world's first full face transplant on man who had a trauma. He was left without a nose and had deformed jaw and cheekbones.

The world's first partial face transplant was carried out in 2005 in France. Isabelle Dinoire underwent the operation to replace her original face, which had been mauled by her dog.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245533-obama-israel-kidnap-ukip/http://rt.com/uk/245533-obama-israel-kidnap-ukip/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 11:56:44 +0000A parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has stepped down after he said US President Barack Obama should be kidnapped and put on trial in Israel, it has emerged.]]>

Jeremy Zeid, who was standing as MP for Hendon in northwest London, said Obama should be locked up like a Nazi war criminal.

His comments were in response to news the US government had declassified documents revealing the existence of Israel’s nuclear program, which is officially secret.

Zeid is a Jewish decorator from Kenton in northwest London, and a former Tory councilor who defected to UKIP.

Zeid bowed out of the general election race after writing on his Facebook page: “Once Obama is out of office, the Israelis should move to extradite the ba****d or ‘do an Eichmann’ on him and lock him up for leaking state secrets.”

His comments were linked to an article about the United States, which revealed Israel’s nuclear program from the right-wing Israeli news website Arutz Sheva.

In response to another Facebook user, who suggested Obama “may” go to prison for “multiple counts of treason” in the US, Zeid effectively compared the president to a Nazi war criminal.

“Nah, just kidnap the bugger, like they did to Eichmann, who suddenly found that he’d woken up in Israel,” he wrote.

“The problem is [that] Israeli jails are far more humane and adherent to human rights than American ones,” he added.

Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi SS officer responsible for managing the logistics of the Holocaust. He was kidnapped by Israel’s secret service and flown to Israel in 1960, where he was tried and executed.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Zeid stood by his controversial comments.

“All I said is that we should ‘do an Eichmann’ and extradite him. It is a private opinion. Remember that phrase ‘Je Suis Charlie’? – well, freedom of speech,” he told the Jewish Chronicle (JC).

“[President Obama] wants to do a deal with Iran – which wants to wipe Israel out, to see the Jewish State gone to dust. Left-wing Jewish people do not want to deal with it.

“People can spin it any way they want. If people do not like it, well, I am sorry,” he added.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245501-visa-russia-guarantee-fee/http://rt.com/business/245501-visa-russia-guarantee-fee/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 11:42:38 +0000The Visa international payment system will be forced to pay a guarantee fee estimated at $60 million for the first quarter of 2015, as it will be unable to transfer Russian domestic processing into the national system of payment cards (NSPC) by April 1.]]>

Visa will pay roughly $200-300 million a year, or about $60 million per quarter, says RBC citing sources close to the Central Bank of Russia.

Visa apparently won’t manage to meet the target date, so it will continue to use capacity in the US after April 1, said the news agency.

The Central Bank of Russia "shifts the responsibility on Visa, believing that it is to blame, as it took too much time to solve the issue of connecting to the national system of payment cards. If it doesn’t have time to transfer traffic, let them pay a fee,” people familiar with the matter told RBC.

Visa doesn’t comment on its plans, but the payment system’s representatives earlier said they were ready to leave Russia so that they didn’t have to pay the fee.

The other major international payment system MasterCard will avoid penalties, as it transferred its processing of Russia’s operations to the country’s national payment system on time.

The bankers surveyed by RBC say that their customers will not notice switching to the national system of payment cards on April 1. At the same time they unofficially admit that Visa’s readiness to carry out transaction processing through the national system of payment cards is practically at zero.

"If 80 percent of MasterCard transactions are already carried out through NSPC and by April 1 the figure will be at 100 percent, the share of Visa is at the same time less than 10 percent," RBC quotes an employee of a leading Russian bank. Visa will have to use their operational center to prevent failures.

On March 25 Vedomosti reported that Visa was behind schedule to transfer to Russia’s NSPC. Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev said there were two options for those in arrears: either to deregister as a national payment system or to pay a deposit.

Moiseev stressed that Visa didn’t ask the Ministry of Finance to extend the period of transition to the national system of payment cards. "And if they did, we would be unlikely to make advances," he said.

Under the new legislation adopted last May, March 31 is the last day for international payment systems who want to work in Russia to transfer local processing operations to the national system of payment cards (NSPC). Otherwise, they will have to make a security deposit to the Central Bank.

Together Visa and MasterCard have 95 percent of the Russian market. According to Morgan Stanley, both payment systems would have had to pay $3 billion in guarantee fees to stay in Russia, if both of them had failed to transfer Russian domestic payments to the NSPC.

The idea to establish the national system of payment cards was proposed last year after Visa and MasterCard froze transactions via their cards issued by banks that were facing Western sanctions.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245573-istanbul-prosecutor-hostage-situation/http://rt.com/news/245573-istanbul-prosecutor-hostage-situation/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 11:27:30 +0000The prominent Turkish prosecutor who was taken hostage by a far-left organization on Tuesday has died in hospital, after a gunfire-filled storming of an Istanbul court in which his captors were also killed.]]>

"We negotiated with the terrorists for six hours, but began the storm when we heard gunshots from the prosecutor's office," said Istanbul's security chief, Selami Altınok.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a visit to Romania, said that prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz suffered five gunshot wounds, and promised to upgrade security protection for state officials. It is unclear is Kiraz was shot by the captors or the incoming security agents.

Eyewitnesses told the media that the storm began with a series of flashbangs, followed by a hail of bullets on the sixth floor, where the hostage was held. An ambulance then approached, and rapidly sped away from the scene.

Kiraz was taken hostage by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP/C) on Tuesday afternoon. The official gained public notoriety leading the case of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old protester who suffered injuries during the anti-government demonstrations of 2013.

Elvan fell into a coma for nine months, and died in March last year. He has subsequently become a symbolic figure for the street protest movement.

DHKP/C posted an image on Kiraz on Twitter, with a gun to his head, followed by a list of demands. Among them a public "apology" and a "people's trial" for the officer accused of injuring Elvan, pardons for all who have protested in his name, and safe passage out of the court building.

But as the three-hour deadline set by the hostage-takers expired with no resolution, the Turkish forces evacuated all people from the courthouse, and snipers took up positions in nearby buildings.

Local media reported that Sami Elvan, the father of the dead teenager, made a plea for the armed men to give themselves up. "My son is dead, and the official must be released," he reportedly told local media, though to no avail.

DHKP/C is a Marxist-Leninist outfit, founded in 1978. It’s responsible for a number of assassinations and suicide bombings, and is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. On September 10, 2001, it killed three people in a suicide bombing.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245513-mi6-technological-arms-race/http://rt.com/uk/245513-mi6-technological-arms-race/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 10:51:42 +0000Britain’s security and intelligence agencies are locked in a “technological arms race” with “malicious actors” including terrorists and cybercriminals, the newly appointed head of MI6 has warned.]]>

Speaking at his first public engagement since taking the helm of the security agency last year, Alex Younger said the country was facing threats from agents who were “unconstrained by the ethics of law.”

Younger told a privately invited audience in London that traditional modes of spying were increasingly becoming interspersed with “technological operations,” with opponents using internet technology to create threats to national security.

He said the use of ‘big data’ had allowed the security agencies to “sharpen some very human characteristics” of their work.

“Using data appropriately and proportionately offers us a priceless opportunity to be even more deliberate and targeted in what we do, and so to be better at protecting our agents and this country,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, that the increased use of technology would make the agencies vulnerable to cybercriminals.

“The bad news is the same technology in opposition hands, an opposition often unconstrained by consideration of ethics and law, allows them to see what we are doing and to put our people and agents at risk,” he said.

“So we find ourselves in a technology arms race. Contrary to myth, human intelligence operations are not an alternative to technical operations – the two are interdependent and set to become more so.”

He described the threats faced by Britain’s security agencies as “the dark side of globalization,” which included “terrorists, malicious actors in cyberspace and criminals.”

“As I speak there are SIS [MI6] officers serving in some of the most dangerous and forbidding places on the planet,” he said.

“Others are operating under deep cover, unable to reveal the real nature of their work, or sometimes even their identity. This takes a particular type of bravery and resilience.”

Younger paid tribute to the work of the security services in the recent wars in the Middle East.

“I am particularly proud of the way in which our work with the military developed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Put bluntly, work done by SIS and GCHQ saved many British and coalition lives.”

He also defended the work of the intelligence and security system. Despite coming under heavy criticism, its work was essential to maintain public trust in the security agencies, he said.

“What really distinguishes us from our opponents is that we live by the values of this country and are regulated by its laws, even as we work in secret. This is our vital advantage,” said Younger.

“Our staff are asked to make complex decisions in a difficult ethical and legal space. They do so with remarkable assurance. If we make mistakes, we face up to them and learn from them.

“The guiding principle is clear – we cannot protect the values this country represents if we undermine them in the process. And we cannot hope to hold the public’s trust unless they know this principle is effectively overseen.”

]]>http://rt.com/politics/245509-putin-russia-un-visit/http://rt.com/politics/245509-putin-russia-un-visit/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 10:47:21 +0000President Vladimir Putin may travel to New York City to deliver a speech at the opening of the UN General Assembly in September, a Russian newspaper reported, quoting several sources close to the Kremlin.]]>

Kommersant Daily quoted sources “close to the presidential administration” as saying that Putin’s trip to the United States was already in the preparatory stage. The newspaper also claimed that a source in the United Nations’ secretariat confirmed this.

However, all the sources noted that Putin’s plans would become clear only in early August. They also emphasized that “everything depends on the international situation.”

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov also said that no final decision has been made on the trip.

“Attending the General Assembly Session is one of the options that are being considered and in this sense it is not very important that it will be the anniversary one.”

In September the United Nations will hold its 70th General Assembly session, with many world leaders expected to participate.

Putin last spoke before the UN General Assembly 10 years ago. Prior to that he had attended in 2003 and 2000. In 2008, the speech at the UN General Assembly session was delivered by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and over the past years Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has represented Russia at major UN events.

Senior Russian officials, including Putin have always prioritized the UN’s role in resolving major international crises and repeatedly accused the US of attempts to “hijack” the UN powers and violate the basic principles of international law.

“Any attempts to replace the universal principles of the United Nations’ Charter by unilateral actions or some bloc agreements, or, worse even, the attempts to use force to bypass the UN Charter, never lead to anything good,” Vladimir Putin said in his 2012 speech before foreign diplomats.

Russia is currently facing fierce opposition from Western countries over the situation in Ukraine, where the pro-Western regime in Kiev is waging a civil war against the southeastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. The greater area known as Donbass has a pro-Russian population, many of whom are ethnic Russians.

The EU, the US and some of their allies have imposed sanctions against top Russian politicians and major companies. Moscow reciprocated with similar steps and has repeatedly vowed that the outside pressure would never make it change its course.

“No sanctions would force Russia to make changes to the persistent line it follows in international affairs,” Peskov said in early March. He also called the sanctions “a double-edged weapon” that, while causing certain discomfort to the Russian economy, was also hurting businesses in the countries that introduced them, not to mention the world economy as a whole.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245489-ap-journalists-targeting-killing/http://rt.com/news/245489-ap-journalists-targeting-killing/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 10:41:17 +0000The Associated Press boss has joined the outcry over the killing and kidnapping of journalists, proposing to make it a war crime. His words come shortly after Ukraine made the list of top 5 deadliest destinations for reporters in 2014.]]>

The AP president and CEO, Gary Pruitt, pointed to the increasingly upside down nature of conflict coverage, wherein reporters used to be seen as impartial civilians covering the fighting, but have since been counted as full participants, targeted for their work. An updated legal framework should reflect this, according to Pruitt.

"It used to be that when media wore PRESS emblazoned on their vest, or PRESS or MEDIA was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection… But guess what: That labeling now is more likely to make them a target,” he said in a speech in Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

The global statistics have shot up, with 61 dead in 2014, putting the number of journalists killed since 1992 at 1,000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The AP in particular lost four journalists on assignment last year.

Meanwhile, the bloody conflict in Ukraine, which has witnessed indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in the east by Ukrainian forces, has also taken on a political dimension, with journalists in the firing line. Last year, the Rossiya Segodnya news agency lost prolific wartime photographer Andrey Stenin to the conflict. His sterling work gave people a window on the early Maidan uprising. He was eventually killed on August 6 near Donetsk, where his convoy came under fire from government forces.

Eight journalists have been killed in Ukraine in 2015 alone. Russia-based journalists became frequent targets for their work, as the video from Slavyansk below demonstrates.

There is death on all sides. Ukraine has lost prominent wartime photographer Sergey Nikolaev, who was with the ‘Segodnya’ newspaper. He was killed during mortar fire near Peski village. The 37-year-old was accompanied by a Ukrainian Right Sector volunteer - both were not wearing flak jackets. Nikolaev became the eighth journalist to perish in the conflict, according to CPJ data.

Naturally, not all deaths are a result of deliberate targeting, but the worsening trend of journalist killings doesn’t sit well with the AP chief, whose comments follow condemnation from the UN and numerous rights groups, including Human Rights Watch. Pruitt proposed creating a new protocol to the Geneva Convention, which would make targeting reporters a specific war crime. He also suggests adapting specific articles at the International Criminal Court.

The AP chief’s reasoning doesn’t just revolve around the changing nature of war, but of social media itself. Its growth increasingly means that extremist groups no longer need journalists to tell their story – they’ve now got Twitter, Facebook and so on.

"They don't need us, they don't want us. They want to tell their story in their way from start to finish with nothing in between, and a journalist is a potential critical filter that they don't want to have around.”

"The larger world, however, needs us. They need us to get the real facts out or the complete story out. Not just one side as they want to tell it,” Pruitt continued.

A further evolution in conflict is seen by the agency boss in hostage-taking. For militant groups it has been an invaluable source of ransom money. That includes abducting journalists and this practice has been on the increase.

Taken together with developments in social media, the it also means journalists aren’t indispensable and are often used by terrorist groups to gain media attention. This can end in public beheadings, broadcast internationally, or in public humiliation, with the reporter being kept alive to report on the terrorists’ gains, as the crisis in the Middle East has shown.

While the majority of slain journalists are attached to prominent news outfits, the AP want to make it their mission to include freelancers, who throw themselves into the conflict without proper training, eager to report on the fighting. Such skills, together with medical training and kits, should be the new standard, according to the agency chief.

Pruitt’s words follow a recent lawsuit by four journalists against the St. Louis police over their arrests during the Ferguson riots last August. They claim unlawful detention and mistreatment, which has also been on the rise lately.

According to the San Francisco-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, 24 journalists were arrested in Ferguson between August and November 2014, including RT’s Denise Reese.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245537-hospital-virginia-shots-prisoner/http://rt.com/usa/245537-hospital-virginia-shots-prisoner/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 09:18:03 +0000An “armed and dangerous” prisoner was arrested in Washington, DC nearly nine hours after escaping from custody in one of the largest hospitals in northern Virginia. The suspect also carjacked two cars while attempting to evade the manhunt.]]>

The incident began at around 3 am ET at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. The Fairfax Police Department tweeted that a search was underway in the area for the escaped convict. He was described as a 6-foot-tall black man, weighing 170 pounds and wearing a hospital gown.

Police are looking for this escaped prisoner. He is wearing a hospital gown and no shoes & armed with a gun. pic.twitter.com/sMtvEYkWeL

The authorities closed all roads around the hospital and staff are to go to nearby Falls Church High School to get a “shuttle bus pick up,” police added.

The lockdown at the hospital was lifted around 8 am ET, and several roads in the area that were closed have since reopened.

During the lockdown, Fairfax County ambulances were ferrying patients to other hospitals, and an emergency announcement came over a loudspeaker, saying patients must remain in their rooms, according to a WTOP staffer who was at the Inova Fairfax hospital at the time.

By 10 am, police said they were pursuing a 2008 dark silver Hyundai Elantra the suspect was said to have carjacked. They also believed he had changed clothes and might have been wearing a dark-colored jacket and blue jeans.

Neither carjacking victim was injured, Fairfax police said.

Assaye is suspected of having been involved in a dozen bank robberies in Northern Virginia since October 2013. He earned the nickname the “Bicycle Bandit” because of a propensity to escape from crime scenes on a bicycle, the Washington Post reported. He has only been charged with one bank robbery, which occurred on March 20.

He has since been charged with escaping federal officials in connection with his escape from the hospital, charging documents said.

Assaye was convicted of burglary and robbery in the late 1990s, and served time in prison from 2000 to May 2013, according to an FBI affidavit.

]]>http://rt.com/business/245485-eia-us-oil-growth/http://rt.com/business/245485-eia-us-oil-growth/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 09:13:50 +0000US crude production increased to 1.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) to 8.7 mbpd in 2014, the largest volume rise since 1900, the date the US Energy Information Administration started keeping records.]]>

This is the sixth consecutive year that the US, with the help of horizontal drilling and fracking, has increased crude production.

Surges in output hailed from fracking states such as North Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico, the EIA’s report, published on Monday, said. The US shale revolution has made the US a net exporter and not an importer of oil. This major change in output level has had a downward trend on oil prices, which lost more than 50 percent in 2014 due to the global supply glut.

In terms of the growth rate, US oil production was up 16.2 percent last year, the biggest increase since 1940 and the largest yearly rise in more than six decades.

“Annual increases in crude oil production regularly surpassed 15 percent in the first half of the 20th century, but those changes were relatively less in absolute terms because production levels were much lower than they are now,” the report said.

OPEC, the group of 12 Gulf State oil producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, has forecast a possible decrease in shale production by the end of 2015, since tight oil production is more vulnerable to low, recently slashed oil prices.

Weak global oil market prices have forced several US oil companies to either close down rigs, or worse, file for bankruptcy. In March 2015, there were 734 less active oil rigs in the US, according to Texas-based oil service company Baker Hughes. This compares with the total of 66 lost internationally. The next rig count will be published on April 2 at 1:00pm EST.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245529-massive-power-outage-turkey/http://rt.com/news/245529-massive-power-outage-turkey/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 08:53:31 +0000The worst power outage in 15 years struck most of Turkey on Tuesday, grounding flights and crippling rail networks. Localized blackouts continued as night fell.]]>

Dogan News Agency reported that all provinces, apart from Van in the east, which receives energy from Iran were affected by the accident that took place at 10:36 a.m. local time. The energy ministry later said that the problem originated on the main Aegean lines, which distribute imported energy throughout the country.

Subway systems and traffic lights went down in several major urban centers, creating havoc on the streets, as an impromptu market opened on the streets for generator fuel. Thousands of people were also trapped for hours in elevators, and on funicular lines. Major industrial objects had to be shut down for the majority of the day.

By late afternoon, the energy ministry said that electricity had been restored to 90 percent of Istanbul, and would "shortly" be back in the remainder of the country.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says all potential causes are still being investigated, “including the possibility of a terror attack,".

"Whether or not terrorism is a high possibility or a low one I can’t say at this stage. I can’t say either whether it is a cyber attack," energy minister Taner Yildiz told reports.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245493-fema-alert-television-emergency/http://rt.com/usa/245493-fema-alert-television-emergency/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 08:49:09 +0000The residents of about a dozen US states received a scare when an ominous message rolled across their TV screens announcing an ‘emergency alert’ with the names of their states – without any explanation or further information.]]>

A test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) began shortly before noon on Monday and was seen by millions of television viewers in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC, Infowars reported.

The emergency alert follows shortly after reports that elite branches of the US military - including Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Special Operations from the Air Force and Marines - are preparing to hold military training in seven southwest states, with some troops operating incognito among civilians.

Emergency Alert System just broadcasted all the States but it's frozen. What the hell is going on?

Operation Jade Helm, which is scheduled to kick off in July and run for eight weeks, will involve the participation of 1,200 troops in dozens of towns in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

No information was available indicating that the emergency alert was connected to this upcoming military drill, where Americans were asked to provide information on ‘suspicious’ activity to the authorities.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245505-lavrov-iran-nuclear-deal/http://rt.com/news/245505-lavrov-iran-nuclear-deal/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:47:00 +0000The ongoing negotiations between Iran and six major world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear program may go into April 1, missing the deadline. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister said talks had a high chance of producing a deal.]]>

"Iran does not want a nuclear deal just for the sake of having a deal, and a final deal should guarantee the Iranian nation's nuclear rights," senior nuclear negotiator Hamid Baidinejad told reporters. "We will continue the talks until we reach an agreement over disputed issues."

A top US official has also acknowledged that tough talks with Iran may go past the midnight deadline into Wednesday.

"We will of course keep working if we are continuing to make progress, including into tomorrow, if it's useful to do so. At this time, no decisions have been made about our travel schedule," the official said as cited by AFP.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius has also said talks have been progressing, but has not ruled out that the P5+1 group may negotiate through the night.

"We are moving forward, but it's complicated, it's long, difficult and I fear that we will spend the night (negotiating)," Fabius told reporters.

The German delegation source also said it was “too early to think about stopping the clock.”

“But that may be necessary,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

“This has to be decided now,” a Western diplomatic source told Reuters, adding that “it can't carry on for six more days.”

"The mood is back and forth, a difficult struggle for a realistic solution that is acceptable to both sides," a German delegation source said. "It remains an open question whether we will succeed."

Even though negotiations may have to go later than expected, the overall mood in Lausanne is positive.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there were “quite promising prospects” of reaching the deal, but he stressed, “there is never 100 percent certainty.”

“We have an opportunity to realize our chances if no party to the negotiations tries to raise the stakes at the last moment to get something extra instead of keeping a balance of interests,” Lavrov stressed during a joint media conference with his Vanuatu counterpart Sato Kilman.

Lavrov interrupted his participation in the talks in in Switzerland's Lausanne on Monday for a meeting with a delegation from Vanuatu, a small Pacific nation recently devastated by a cyclone.

Later on Tuesday Lavrov returned to the negotiations, which are in a make-or-break last day phase.

The Russian minister added that once a compromise is reached, the UN Security Council should dismantle the sanctions it imposed against Iran over its nuclear program. As for the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, “we do not recognize them in any situation, whether it is Iran or any other country,” Lavrov noted.

Some diplomats say an agreement may be signed during a later meeting in Geneva.

“We are working meticulously to produce a document. If all goes well, the signing ceremony may take place in Geneva rather than Lausanne,” a diplomatic source in the Iranian delegation told TASS, describing the round of negotiations as a “daunting marathon.”

Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian-American Council told RT that he’s “pretty confident we’re going to see a deal” at the end of the current talks.

“I don’t think the parties have got this far in order to see a collapse. I think that this is a moment for potential brinkmanship, attempts to get the best possible deal, the last mile of the race,” he said.

Abdi believes that the signing of the deal may also lead to an improvement in relations between Iran and the US, which currently have no diplomatic ties.

“If we can fix the nuclear issue we might begin to turn the page and shift the paradigm, and see increased, positive opportunities for diplomacy between the US and Iran, and other states in the region,” he stressed.

Iran and the P5+1 group, which includes five permanent members of the UNSC plus Germany, have gathered in Lausanne to hammer out a framework deal, which would settle a decade-old controversy over Iran's nuclear development. Tehran was accused of pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program by some countries, but insists that it only wants to use nuclear energy for civilian use.

The deal would put restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities, which would prevent it from rushing towards nuclear capability while allowing it to develop a civilian nuclear industry.

The negotiations are opposed by some of Iran's regional rivals, most notably US allies - Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israel vigorously obstructed the negotiations, claiming that they would result in a “bad deal.”

]]>http://rt.com/news/245465-beijing-pollution-limit-cars/http://rt.com/news/245465-beijing-pollution-limit-cars/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 07:28:06 +0000Beijing has introduced new traffic rules to combat the massive smog that has cloaked the Chinese capital for years. When city authorities issue a ‘red alert’, a number of cars will be banned on the roads and heavy vehicles completely banished.]]>

Four types of pollution alerts, blue, yellow, orange and red, will be issued on ‘heavy pollution’ days, according to Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau. The term will be applied if the Air Quality Index tops 200.

Orange and red alerts are to be announced 24 hours before these heavily polluted days, Yao Hui, deputy head of the bureau, told Xinhua news agency.

Vehicles bearing odd- and even-numbered license plates will be allowed on the streets on alternating days during red alerts. Also 30 percent of government cars will be banished from the city traffic irrespective of their plate numbers.

All factories will be shut down during orange alerts. Heavy vehicles, such as construction trucks, will also be completely banned during orange and red alerts. The same system is applied to battle another big city problem – traffic jams.

"With the new plan, strong pollution measures could be implemented more often and public health - particularly that of children - can be protected more effectively,” Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental based in Beijing, told the Global Times.

“The only concern is whether the government will be determined enough to issue red alerts considering the difficulties in implementing the controversial car ban," he said.

Beijing is the world's most-polluted city. A map of air quality in the capital and other Chinese cities shows that numerous locations are smog-bound. In some areas the air quality index already tops 200.

On Tuesday, Plumelabs.com, a website that monitors 60 cities, indicated Beijing AQI (Air quality index) level of 176. It means that there is “critical level of pollution and harmful impacts on the general public” in the city.

China has been suffering a pollution crisis for decades which has left big cities shrouded in constant smog and half the groundwater contaminated. Pollution from the coal industry alone killed 670,000 people in China in 2012, according to last year’s study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The level of air pollution in China was more than double the national standard in 2014 with the indicators of environmental pollution over the limit in 90 percent of 161 Chinese cities. The level of small particles that pose a danger to human health, averaged 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter in 2014 in Beijing compared with the national standard of 35.

Only eight of China’s 74 large cities have managed to meet official air safety standards in 2014, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245449-mh17-crash-buk-investigation/http://rt.com/news/245449-mh17-crash-buk-investigation/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 06:26:17 +0000The international team of experts investigating the MH17 tragedy in eastern Ukraine have called for possible witnesses to turn in any evidence that might back a scenario that the airliner was shot down by a Buk missile system.]]>

In a video address, released by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), possible witnesses have been encouraged to share their photo and video materials to prove that a Buk surface-to-air missile launcher was transported through the Donbass region before and after the MH17 incident last July.

“The focus of one scenario is that the MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile system,”JIT said in a statement.“We are looking for witnesses who have seen Buk crew members or have more information about the identity of those involved in ordering and launching the Buk.”

Although some media rushed to conclusions, spokesman for the Dutch Public Prosecutor, Wim de Bruin, emphasized that there is “more than one” scenario.“But the one of the Buk rocket has a lot of unanswered questions and that’s why we have put out an appeal,”de Bruin said, calling it a“leading scenario.”

"This appeal for witnesses does not mean that police and prosecutors have definitively concluded what caused MH17 to crash," the address said. "For that, more investigation is needed."

A preliminary report of the official investigation published in September 2014 only said that the crash was a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck the Boeing from the outside. The report did not specify what the objects were, where they came from or who was responsible.

No other verifiable evidence has yet been made publicly available, besides objective air control and military monitoring data partially released by the Russian Defense Ministry, which indicated the presence of Ukrainian surface-to-air batteries and warplanes in the area on the day of the Boeing shooting.

Investigative historian, Eric Zuesse, was among those to criticize the JIT’s video, saying it doesn’t meet modern legal forensic standards.

“The reconstruction that is hypothesized in that video…is based on hearsay and speculation, not on the best available evidence; and so, as presented there, it would not qualify to be presented to a jury in a democracy,” he wrote in a letter to RT.

According to the historian, the video ignores the “extremely high quality evidence” of the side-panel near the pilot of the downed Malaysian plane.

“The 30mm bullet holes in it are simply inconsistent with the MH17 airliner’s having been downed by any ground-based missile,” Zuesse stressed.

Amid the JIT call for witnesses, a local resident in Lugansk region – whom Reuters cited as saying he saw evidence of a surface-to-air missile launched from rebel-held territory – has told RT that the news agency gave a false report of his interview.

“Attempts at distorting facts, enforcing theories as to what could have happened continue to exist, with some based on openly dirty intentions,” Lavrov told journalists.

Yet the JIT investigators, pursuing their “leading” scenario in the crash investigation, have compiled a video that incorporated both social-media-sourced materials and unverified audio files apparently provided by the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, stipulating direct Russian involvement in the tragedy. The team alleges that the Buk missile launcher was seen several times around the time of the crash, yet no real evidence has been offered to support this theory.

The US intelligence community apparently does not have any evidence to support Russian involvement in any way, investigative journalist Robert Parry told RT, citing his intelligence sources and own probe.

Soon after the tragedy, Parry was told “their actual evidence was going in a very different direction.” Eight months after the tragedy the US stands by its old assessment of the incident all based on “circumstantial evidence” and social media reports, refusing to release new data, Parry says.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245461-tepco-fukushima-radiation-data/http://rt.com/news/245461-tepco-fukushima-radiation-data/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 05:22:50 +0000The nuclear operator of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has announced that it plans to disclose all data on radiation levels recorded at the site in response to criticism of lack of transparency following the catastrophe.]]>

Tokyo Electric Power Co. TEPCO will start disclosing all data sets “as soon as they become available” for release, President Naomi Hirose told a press conference. The utility staffers aim to “break away from our tendency of covering up” information, he added.

Takafumi Anegawa, the company’s director, said the amount of data they plan to release will be around double the current level, according to Kyodo.

TEPCO said that the measure is done to enhance transparency following criticism last month that the company failed to reveal immediately the possibility of radioactive rainwater leakage into the ocean through a gutter.

The data is to be published on TEPCO’s website and is to include radiation levels of water running through and the soil at the plant. The company also hopes for the information and data to be evaluated regularly by a third party.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that its experts are set to visit Japan in April to obtain detailed data on contaminated water management.

“The Japanese government requested the visit in order to provide the IAEA with further explanations on measures against contaminated water, including contaminated rainwater, and TEPCO's efforts to improve communications and public outreach activities,” the press release on the IAEA website said.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245457-imf-ukraine-irresponsible-ron-paul/http://rt.com/usa/245457-imf-ukraine-irresponsible-ron-paul/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 04:45:24 +0000The IMF move to extend a bailout to Kiev only serves the US foreign policy agenda and does nothing to save Ukraine from economic meltdown, according to former US presidential candidate Ron Paul, who says the whole system cannot be fixed but only scrapped.]]>

“A responsible financial institution would not extend a new loan of between 17 and 40 billion dollars to a borrower already struggling to pay back an existing multi-billion dollar loan,” Paulwrotein an opinion piece for the Ron Paul Institute.

The new four-year IMF extended arrangement is designed to support economic stabilization and wide-ranging reforms in Ukraine. Yet, Paul argues, the new loan scheme does nothing for the Kiev-government allied to Washington, the IMF’s principal financier.

“This new loan may not make much economic sense, but propping up the existing Ukrainian government serves the foreign policy agenda of the US,” Paul writes.

The US politician goes on to accuse the IMF of “tailoring” its actions to advance the US government’s foreign policy goals.

“The IMF also has a history of using the funds provided to it by the American taxpayer to prop up dictatorial regimes and support unsound economic policies,” he writes.

Although Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed off on legislative measures to drastically reduce spending and approved changes to the tax system, the loans still fail to promote a free market, Paul says.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245453-pesticides-fruit-vegetables-sperm/http://rt.com/usa/245453-pesticides-fruit-vegetables-sperm/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 04:18:22 +0000A major study of men’s sperm found that those who ate regular quantities of fruit and vegetables that had pesticide residue on them had half the sperm count of men who ate less, a new study showed.]]>

The Harvard University study, the first of its kind on the issue, analyzed sperm samples from 155 men who attended a fertility clinic during 2007-2012, Reuters reported. The men involved were attending a fertility clinic because they and their partners were unable to conceive, and were asked about the food they ate, including how often they ate fruit and vegetables like apples, avocados or cantaloupe.

Researchers then examined data from the US Department of Agriculture to measure whether the produce in these men’s diets contained a high, moderate or low amount of pesticide residue. They found that foods like peppers, spinach, strawberries, apples and pears rate high for pesticide residue, whereas peas, beans, grapefruits and onions rated lower to moderate.

Pesticides result in lower sperm counts: Men who ate fruits and vegetables with higher levels of pesticide residues… http://t.co/542KnVZDEQ

Men who ate the highest amount of fruit and vegetables with high levels of residue had a 49 percent lower sperm count, with a 32 percent lower percentage of normally-formed sperm than men who consumed a lower amount of produce, or less than 1.5 servings a day.

“These findings should not discourage the consumption of fruit and vegetables, in general,” said co-author Jorge Chavarro of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Chavarro said the problem is not the quantity of fruit and vegetables eaten, it is the quality. He said men who consumed high qualities of fruit and vegetables that have lower levels of pesticide residue have “normally shaped” sperm. Organic produce also helps.

Men who ate fruit and vegetables heavily laden with pesticides had an average total sperm count of 86 million sperm per ejaculation. Men who ate the least-affected food produced 171 million sperm per ejaculation. Previous studies have tied poor semen quality to occupational and environmental exposure to chemicals, but this latest study points to the effect of pesticides in the diet. Researchers said the results did not specify which pesticides were responsible but pointed to pesticide mixtures.

“Given that pesticides are designed to kill and harm pest reproduction, it is not surprising that they are harmful to human reproduction,” study co-author Dr. Hagai Levine of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York told Reuters.

Chavarro and his team are also investigating whether women’s markers of fertility may also be linked to pesticides in the diet, he said.

In 2013, a related study of diet and sperm from Harvard’s School of Public Health – from the same study sample of men – showed that processed red meat consumption could also reduce sperm quality and quantity, and the study recommended increasing consumption of white and dark fish meat.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245417-mcdonalds-breakfast-table-service/http://rt.com/usa/245417-mcdonalds-breakfast-table-service/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 03:58:44 +0000Trying to bounce back from a 15 percent decline in profit last year, McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food chain, is trying to stay nimble in knowing customers’ changing desires with innovative ideas such as all-day breakfast and even table service.]]>

The company plans to test offering breakfast all-day in some locations in San Diego, California starting in April. Customers have been demanding breakfast all day for a long time to keep pace with changing work habits. However, the company has previously said that it would be logistically impossible because of tight kitchen spaces at the franchises.

The pilot announced Monday will include a limited menu of popular breakfast sandwiches and hash browns, but McDonald’s has not said which items will be included.

“We know our customers love McDonald’s breakfast and they tell us they’d like to enjoy it beyond the morning hours,” McDonald’s said in a statement confirming it will test all-day breakfast “at select restaurants in the San Diego area”.

America’s new habit is to eat breakfast out instead of making it at home – a trend that has been noticed and adopted by Starbucks and Taco Bell.

Jeff Stratton, head of McDonald’s USA, told The Associated Press in February, “the company was taking a look at how it could make breakfast available later in the day.”

In Germany, meanwhile, the company is test-piloting table service at Frankfurt Airport, where customers can place an order with a waiter, at the front counter or in a digital kiosk, and be served at a table.

“This is completely new for McDonald's,” said Thomas Brand, the company’s head of development and restaurant innovation for Germany, according to Reuters. The restaurant has more than 500 seats and the company hopes it will boost its image in Germany as a “modern, progressive burger company,” where poor sales contributed to a 1.1 percent decline in the fourth quarter.

McDonald’s has also been experimenting with making foods personalized to customer’s tastes as a way to remain popular and compete with other chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Shake Shack. A recent pilot called ‘Build Your Burger’ was launched in four locations in Southern California, where customers selected on in-store iPads which items to accompany their burger. The pilot, now called ‘Create Your Taste,’ has been expanded to 30 stores in five states: Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The service charges $8.00 instead of the customary $5.00.

McDonald’s, like many other fast food outlets, has a target of a national, highly-publicized labor movement trying to raise the minimum wage of its workers to $15 an hour. And like many fast food outlets, it has been under pressure from health campaigns. It recently announced it was ditching antibiotic stuffed chickens.

Perhaps taking a cue from the effectiveness of the mass mobilizations against the company’s low pay, McDonald’s declared a global ‘day of joy’ and held a series of events in cities across the world last week.

Designed to build loyalty with millennial customers, the ‘I’m lovin’ it 24’ campaign featured a giant ball pit in Sydney, a pajama party in Milan, a drone selfie in Dubai, a pop-up library in Paris and a free Ne-Yo concert in Los Angeles. The company is estimated to have spent $30-40 million on it, according to Buzzfeed.

]]>http://rt.com/uk/245445-briton-pleads-guilty-terror/http://rt.com/uk/245445-briton-pleads-guilty-terror/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 02:37:57 +0000A mentally ill British man, who was extradited to the US on charges of conspiring to set up a jihadist training camp on a ranch in Oregon, has pleaded guilty in a New York court.]]>

Haroon Rashid Aswat, 40, a British citizen of Indian descent from West Yorkshire, is accused of having conspired with Abu Hamza, a Muslim cleric who preached in London in the 1990s and was convicted of terrorism charges last May.

At the hearing in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday, Aswat admitted that he had been ordered to help train recruits “who wanted to participate in jihad on behalf of a terrorist organization,” AP reported.

Prosecutors accused Aswat of arriving in Oregon – a “pro-militia and firearms state” – with instructions on how to make bombs and poisons to help set up a camp and stockpile weapons and ammunition between 1999 and 2000.

Aswat, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was extradited in October last year from Britain to the US, after losing a long legal battle. In January 2015 the European Court of Human Rights finally ruled that his extradition had been legal.

Before pleading guilty Aswat again told the judge of his mental condition, but she ruled that the sentencing should go ahead because the suspect was receiving satisfactory care in the US and was not showing any symptoms of schizophrenia.

Aswat faces up to 20 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for July 31.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245409-pentagon-easing-recruitment-standards/http://rt.com/usa/245409-pentagon-easing-recruitment-standards/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 02:14:07 +0000The Pentagon is considering how to attract and retain the best and the brightest people in areas like cyber-technology, even if that means easing recruitment standards and hiring older people or offering incentives like student loan repayments.]]>

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter began a two-day trip on Monday during which he will speak to students and soldiers about what the military will have to do to create the “force of the future.” The trip involves visits to Carter’s own high school in Pennsylvania, the Fort Drum military base in New York to meet soldiers and their families, and Syracuse University, also in New York.

“We now have the finest fighting force the world has ever known,” Carter told an audience of Abington High School students on Monday, according to Defense Department press release. “And they are not just defending our country against terrorists in such places as Afghanistan and Syria and Iraq – they’re helping defend cyberspace, too.”

The military, Carter said, “could ease age requirements to bring in older people who are mid-career” or help pay off student loans “to attract student who have finished college,” reported The Associated Press. Carter said military personnel are increasingly working with cutting-edge technologies such as robotics and biomedical engineering.

“Movies like ‘American Sniper,’ video games like Call of Duty’ and TV commercials with troops coming home are most likely where you see our military in your everyday lives, unless you have a family member or friend who is serving, ” said Carter in the statement.

“Those images are somewhat true” but “only part of what the 2.3 million men and women in uniform do every day in their jobs and in their lives.”

Soldiers, he said, are not just being deployed to war zones, but also where disaster strikes to provide assistance and aid, from the 2011 nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan to Hurricane Sandy to helping stop the spread of Ebola in Africa.

The AP reported this is not the first time the military has had to think about how to ease recruitment standards. During 2006-07, the military struggled to meet deployment demands in Iraq and Afghanistan. They allowed more recruits with criminal records, some with felony convictions, to meet quotas. The unfortunate consequence of those policies led to escalating sexual assaults and suicides.

“Our country’s military missions continue to evolve rapidly as our world changes and technology continues to revolutionize everything we do,” Carter said. “And … the institution I lead, the Department of Defense, must keep pace with that change as well to keep our national secure.”

Military leaders have complained that it is hard to keep cyber-professionals in the services because they can make far more money in private industries. The military is also starting to look at whether it can improve retirement benefits, promotion and evaluation systems, and offer more sabbatical for service members.

“I don’t want to lose our best people. I don’t want to lose our best skills, and I know that I can’t take that for granted because you have lots of choices,” said Carter, speaking to soldiers and their families at Fort Drum.

“You are so good that you have other places in society to apply your skills. And if we want to keep you we need to think carefully we need to be innovated about what we do.”

]]>http://rt.com/op-edge/245441-mh17-us-intelligence-lies/http://rt.com/op-edge/245441-mh17-us-intelligence-lies/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 02:12:53 +0000There is so much political pressure over the MH17 crash in Ukraine that investigators would rather conclude that no one really knows what happened than make several powerful people look foolish, believes Robert Parry, editor of Consortium News.]]>

More than eight months since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down above war-torn eastern Ukraine, speculation in international media is only adding fuel to the blame game, while no actual evidence to back claims has been released.

The US intelligence community is failing to share its own discoveries into the crash, fearing it will lead the investigation in the "wrong" direction, Robert Parry told RT.

RT:Are there any facts behind this suggestion that there could be some information that we’re not being told from American intelligence about what happened to MH17?

Robert Parry: As you remember the plane was shot down on July 17 of last year. There was an immediate rush to judgment in the US and elsewhere blaming the Russians and the pro-Russian rebels. That is what people were saying literally within days of the incident. And on that Sunday, the plane was shot down on Thursday and by that Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry went on all five American Sunday TV shows and essentially made that argument saying he had strong circumstantial evidence.

Then on July 22, the director of National Intelligence issued a white paper based largely on social media and some scattered intelligence that was then available also pointing the finger in the same direction, towards the rebels and towards the Russian government that is supposedly supplying sophisticated BUK missile system to the rebels.

Now very quickly along that period I was being told from a source who has been briefed by some of the US intelligence analysts that their actual evidence was going in a very different direction. That they have not seen evidence that the Russian government had provided the BUK missile system. They had still been trying to figure out who had fired it. And clearly the US intelligence community continued to work [on]the issue. They’ve gone for weeks going back to the material – both electronic and other intelligence material, as well as satellite photos – to see what they can determine.

Now just recently this past month Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland testified before Congress and again pointed the finger at the Russians and the ethnic Russian rebels. So I tried to contact the State Department at that point to see if they had any new information to back up their claim.

I got no response from them. So I went to the Central Intelligence Agency. And I’ve received from them a suggestion that I go to the Director of the National Intelligence (DNI), which I did. And they actually responded. But their response was to send me the July 22 White Paper that they had put out almost eight months before.

So at that point I went back to them and said, “you must have has an update, some change in this, some refinement?” And they responded: “No, we haven’t.”

RT:So you are basically getting the run-around on any kind of information here. Do you think this is normal or does it lead you to believe that this investigation is taking a bit too long? I mean in the crash that we saw last weeks in the Alps, it certainly is an ongoing investigation, but light, serious light was shone on that case within 48 hours. Is it normal for an investigation like this done by the Europeans to take so long?

RP: No it is not. And clearly the US intelligence community knows a great deal more at this point than they did on July 22. And I responded to the DNI saying, “this is not a credible response here.” Because I know from my sourcing that there has been advancement, refinement, into what the US government knows. But they were just sticking to their position.

So there has obviously been a case where the US government and many of the other governments involved in this know a great deal more than they did within those few days after the event. But they are not willing to share that with the public.

RT:Why do you think we are seeing so many accusations from the European press? Just today, we have an unverified video apparently from Ukraine in the Dutch press about this case, making the case that this was in fact the rebels. Why so much the opposite of the sort of details that you're implying or at least trying to delve into from the State Department?

RP: Well, I can't comment at what some others may be looking at. What I was told by this source who has been briefed by a US intelligence analyst was that the information was going in a very different direction. That they were looking more into some rogue operation implicating some element of the Ukrainian military. But we still don’t know. The BND in Germany, their intelligence service, according to Der Spiegel, said the rebels fired the missiles but said that the missile did not come from Russia, it came from a captured battery of the Ukrainian military. So there is conflicting information out there. But frankly there is really no reason eight months into this investigation that so much is being kept from the world public.

RT:Do you think the truth will eventually come out on MH17?

RP: I don’t know. I think there is there is such an amount of political pressure on this one. It will be very embarrassing if the investigation goes off in the direction that makes many powerful people look foolish. So I think there will be a lot of intense effort to either pretend that no one really knows for sure or some other possible answer but it maybe that this will get lost because once a cold case becomes this cold, once the people who have perpetrated this have this much time to escape and to hide, it makes it much harder to ultimately get to the bottom of this.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245433-reporters-sue-ferguson-police/http://rt.com/usa/245433-reporters-sue-ferguson-police/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 01:59:52 +0000Four journalists are suing St. Louis police over their arrests during the Ferguson, Missouri protests last August. They claim to have been detained and mistreated by the officers even though their press credentials were in plain view.]]>

The suit was filed Monday by US citizen Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept and three German nationals residing in the US – Ansgar Graw of Die Welt, Frank Herrmann of the Rheinische Post group and freelance reporter Lukas Hermsmeier.

“This was a very new experience,” Graw wrote following his release. He had visited many disputed areas and conflict zones, from Gaza and Georgia to Iraq and Cuba. “But to be arrested and yelled at and be rudely treated by police? For that I had to travel to Ferguson and St. Louis in the United States of America.”

The four plaintiffs are charging the St. Louis Police Department with “intentionally and willfully” subjecting them to “violations of freedom of the press and free speech” for the purpose of “obstructing, chilling, deterring, and retaliating” against reporters covering the unrest in the Missouri town.

According to the San Francisco-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, 24 journalists were arrested in Ferguson between August and November 2014, including RT’s Denise Reese.

Protests broke out following the August 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. In addition to police officers from nearby departments, Missouri authorities deployed the National Guard, banned all assembly and even established a no-fly zone over Ferguson.

At the time, the authorities said officers had difficulty telling reporters apart from the protesting activists. In their complaint, Graw and Herrmann allege they were detained while carrying their cameras and wearing press badges around their necks. Hermsmeier and Devereaux claim they had shown the officers their media credentials before they were shot at with rubber bullets and arrested.

The complaint names the St. Louis County Police and the County of St. Louis, as well as 20 officers identified only as “John Doe,” as they refused to disclose their names to the reporters at the time of the arrests. One officer reportedly introduced himself as “Donald Duck.” The plaintiffs demand unspecified punitive damages and a jury trial.

Last week, the St. Louis County Police, city police and the Missouri Highway Patrol agreed to settle a federal lawsuit by six Ferguson protesters over the use of tear gas and other chemical agents against the demonstrators.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245429-nypd-pantaleo-lawsuit-crash-injuries/http://rt.com/usa/245429-nypd-pantaleo-lawsuit-crash-injuries/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 01:01:48 +0000​The behavior of the New York Police Department officer who placed Staten Island man Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold is under the microscope once again, this time for allegedly crashing a car into and injuring another man.]]>

In a lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court, Leonardo Aguirre claims that NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo crashed a police vehicle into his car while speeding on June 20, the New York Daily News reported. As a result of the crash, Aguirre says he suffered from “severe and permanent” injuries to his neck, left shoulder and knees, the lawsuit claims.

An unnamed source within the police department told the Daily News, however, that Pantaleo was the one who was hit by another car. Additionally, the source added that Pantaleo was flashing his police vehicle’s emergency lights and responding to a call at the time.

According to the lawsuit, the accident on June 20 occurred less than a month before Pantaleo became involved in the attempted arrest of Eric Garner, a, African-American father of six who was approached by officers on Staten Island for selling loose cigarettes. On July 17, Pantaleo placed Garner in a chokehold as several other officers helped to subdue him. Garner died as a result of the chokehold.

A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges, despite the fact that the entire incident was caught on tape, sparking massive protests against the NYPD across the city. The officer is still under review by the NYPD, which is looking into the Garner incident internally.

Notably, this isn’t the first time Pantaleo has been targeted in a lawsuit. Two men won $30,000 after the city settled a 2012 lawsuit claiming that Pantaelo strip-searched two men and slapped their testicles.

Pantaleo was also among several officers named in separate 2012 lawsuits regarding the same incident, a drug raid during which two men said they were arrested because Pantaleo claimed they were in possession of marijuana. Both men also said they had their private parts and genitals searched.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245425-california-death-row-crowded/http://rt.com/usa/245425-california-death-row-crowded/RTTue, 31 Mar 2015 00:03:23 +0000With executions stalled by court battles over California’s death penalty, the state is running out of room for death row inmates. Governor Jerry Brown is asking for $3.2 million to adapt 100 more cells at the state prison for men.]]>

The requested funds would be used to refurbish cells made available as the state releases low-level offenders under a new law approved by the voters last year, reports the Los Angeles Times. State corrections department spokesman Terry Thornton told the paper the plan was a “cost-effective proposal” to “safely house condemned inmates going forward,” until the courts can rule on the future of California’s death penalty.

Last July, US District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled that lengthy delays and uncertainty in California’s application of the death penalty constitute “cruel and unusual punishment,” which is prohibited by the Constitution. He noted that the state had sentenced to death more than 900 people since 1978, but executed only 13.

“No rational person,” Carney wrote, “can question that the execution of an individual carries with it the solemn obligation of the government to ensure that the punishment is not arbitrarily imposed and that it furthers the interests of society.”

According to Natasha Minsker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, it was “the first time any judge has ruled systemic delay creates an arbitrary system that serves no legitimate purpose and is therefore unconstitutional,” the LA Times reported.

Executions were halted in 2006, after state and federal courts banned the three-drug cocktail used for lethal injections. Brown had asked an advisory board to come up with a single-drug method in 2012, but so far there have been no proposals, and the state lacks a court-approved method of execution.

Forty-nine inmates have died on death row between 2006 and today, some of them from cancer, drug overdose or suicide. There are 731 men and 20 women awaiting execution in California presently, the largest population of the condemned in the US. Florida ranks second, with over 400.

The women are housed at a separate facility, but the men’s prison at San Quentin is almost at maximum capacity with 708 inmates. Another 23 condemned men are housed elsewhere, under special circumstances.

A budget subcommittee led by a vocal opponent of the death penalty is scheduled to review Gov. Brown’s proposal in April. In a written statement to the LA Times, state Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) said the legislators may not have a choice but to approve the funding.

“We are required by the Courts to address prison overcrowding and we are required by law to provide certain minimum conditions for housing death penalty inmates,” she wrote. “The Legislature can’t avoid its responsibilities in these areas.”

The proposal is part of California’s $113-billion budget.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245405-conception-vs-birth-sex-ratio/http://rt.com/usa/245405-conception-vs-birth-sex-ratio/RTMon, 30 Mar 2015 23:43:17 +0000The sex ratio at conception is 50-50 between males and females, but more males are born throughout the world because of a higher mortality rate for female fetuses, according to a new study that focused on the sex ratio from conception to birth.]]>

“It’s important to study male-female differences in the womb because they underlie, in part, the profound differences we see between males and females at birth and thereafter,” biologist Steven Orzack at the Fresh Pond Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts said, according to HealthDay.

Gene expression starts at the first cell ‒ or immediately after fertilization ‒ and the first linkage to the X- or Y-chromosomes occurs at the eight-cell stage, meaning that gender is assigned to the fetus almost at conception. In general, around 105 boys are born for every 100 girls worldwide, a natural phenomenon that was first studied in the late 17th century, and that is not due to selective abortions of female fetuses in some regions.

“Our results indicate that the sex ratio at conception is unbiased, the proportion of males increases during the first trimester, and total female mortality during pregnancy exceeds total male mortality,” the authors, led by Orzack, wrote about the significance of their study.

The data disproves the claim that conception is more male-biased than the birth sex ratio, an assertion that “appears often in textbooks and in scientific literature, usually with little or no description of evidence,” the researchers wrote, noting that previous estimates of the primary sex ratio “have no meaningful basis in data from the time of conception (or within at least a month of it.”

To estimate the sex ratio at conception, they examined data on nearly 140,000 embryos that had been created in fertility clinics, along with almost 900-thousand samples from fetal screening tests like amniocentesis, and 30 million records from abortions, miscarriages and live births. The embryos ‒ aged three to six days old ‒ that had been routinely screened at fertility clinics in the United States and Canada for genetic problems.

In the US, 51 percent of the babies born are male.

“Our dataset is the most comprehensive and largest ever assembled to estimate the sex ratio at conception and the sex ratio trajectory and is the first, to our knowledge, to include all of these types of data,” the authors wrote.

Orzack and his fellow researchers from Harvard, Oxford and Genzyme Genetics found that the sex breakdown was virtually even at the point of conception.

The researchers also found that the sex ratio among abnormal embryos is male-biased, and the sex ratio among normal embryos is female-biased, which may be associated with the abnormal or normal state of the sex chromosomes and of chromosomes 15 and 17.

The sex ratio decreases in the first week or so after conception, meaning there is an excess of male mortality. The ratio then increases for at least 10-15 weeks as more female fetuses die, and then levels off after approximately the 20th week of pregnancy, the authors found. The sex ratio finally declines slowly from week 28 to week 35 due to another excess of male fetuses dying.

“The unbiased sex ratio at conception, the increase in the sex ratio during the first trimester, and total mortality during pregnancy being greater for females are fundamental insights into early human development,” the researchers wrote.

In the future, Orzack said the group would like to figure out why more females are dying than males during the early stages of pregnancy and why the ratio switches later on, with more males dying during the latter stages of gestation, according to HealthDay.

The paper was published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a scientific journal.

]]>http://rt.com/news/245413-venezuela-petition-us-aggression/http://rt.com/news/245413-venezuela-petition-us-aggression/RTMon, 30 Mar 2015 23:32:03 +0000Rejecting what they see as interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, over five million people across the country have signed a petition demanding that the US president repeals his executive order that declared Caracas an extraordinary security threat.]]>

“We have collected more than 5 million signatures and we want to call on the Venezuelan people to keep on going to reach 10 million,” Jorge Rodriguez, mayor of Caracas and coordinator of the initiative told Venezolana de Television.

For the past week plazas, government offices and buildings opened their doors seeking to collect some 10 million signatures against Washington’s policy towards the Latin American country.

“Our intention is to deliver the collected signatures to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, as clear evidence that the people of Venezuela reject the crude interference in our internal affairs,” Rodriguez added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has set a goal of collecting at least 10 million signatures – about a third of the country’s total population – ahead of the Summit of the Americas taking place April 10-11 in Panama, also called on people to continue their support.

“Let us continue supporting the fatherland. Signatures are being collected at public squares and door-to-door. We have reached 5 million and we will collect 10 million,” Maduro said on Twitter.

Earlier this month, Obama issued an executive order to impose further sanctions against Venezuela and declared the country an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security.” The sanctions target seven individuals accused by Washington of alleged human rights violations and “public corruption.”

In response, the Venezuelan lawmakers granted Maduro a right to rule by decree till the end of the year to defend the country’s integrity and sovereignty against “imperialist threats” from the US government.

Maduro’s crusade against US interference in his country’s affairs has received wide support across the Latin American region. The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, joined the campaign launched by the Venezuelan government and signed a petition which said that “Venezuela is not a threat.”

“This is not about being for or against a government, it is to ensure respect for international law,” Correa said last week. “We are collecting million signatures to tell Obama that’s enough, Latin America has already changed.”

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245393-robot-ants-butterflies-gripper/http://rt.com/usa/245393-robot-ants-butterflies-gripper/RTMon, 30 Mar 2015 22:49:28 +0000Seeking inspiration in nature and using 3D printing, one automation company has created ants, flying butterflies and a lizard-inspired gripper arm that may be the future of robotics.]]>

Festo, a private company specializing in industrial control and automation based in Esslingen am Neckar in southern Germany, has a history of making robots inspired by nature. Earlier robot models have been shaped like fish, birds and even a kangaroo. The company’s latest creations, however, drew inspiration from the world of insects, and used 3D printing to push the envelope.

Festo’s BionicANTs are built using a form of 3D printing called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). The molded circuitry is mounted on the outside of their bodies, and they move using piezo-bending transducers rather than traditional servos. In addition to autonomously moving their six legs, the ants have a pair of working pincers. The antennae are actually charging points for a battery that provides about 40 minutes of activity per charge.

According to the company, the “eMotion Butterflies” are an experiment in making small robots able to fly in tight spaces. Two miniature servo motors power the wings, made of carbon fiber rods mounted on laser-sintered bodies. The tiny robotic butterflies, weighing only 32 grams (1.12 ounces), can fly around for three to four minutes, coordinated by GPS and infrared cameras so they never collide.

Chameleon tongue served as the inspiration for the FlexShapeGripper, a robotic arm with amazingly precise gripping ability. Featuring a silicone cap that adapts to the target shape, the gripper can pick up, hold and release multiple objects with precision and ease.

]]>http://rt.com/usa/245389-airborne-antibiotic-resistance-cattle-feedyards/http://rt.com/usa/245389-airborne-antibiotic-resistance-cattle-feedyards/RTMon, 30 Mar 2015 22:34:37 +0000DNA from antibiotic-resistant bacteria is spreading from cattle feedlots across the US through the air, a new study has found. The report indicates that so-called superbugs threatening humans could be traced to the use of antibiotics in cattle feed.]]>

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial DNA is known to be transferable to humans if ingested via water or meat. The authors of the study sought to determine the extent to which antibiotics, antibiotic-resistance genes and microbes associated with ruminants like cattle are dispersed into the air via particulate matter derived from large scale beef cattle feedyards, they wrote in their abstract. The paper is set to be published in April.

Despite evidence that agricultural use of antibiotics is a contributor to antibiotic-resistance, animal agriculture uses nearly 10 million kg of antibiotics annually in the United States alone.

"This is the first test to open our eyes to the fact that we could be breathing these things," Phil Smith, one of the paper’s authors and an environmental toxicologist at Texas Tech University, told the Texas Tribune.

The scientists looked at the more than three-quarters of all cattle on US feedyards with more than 1,000 head ‒ a total of 8.24 million cattle ‒ were located in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, an area called the Southern High Plains that “has the highest frequency of dust storms in the United States and the highest density of feedyards,” the authors noted.

“Feedyard pen floor material, which consists primarily of urine and fecal material, becomes dry and brittle, thus becoming source material for fugitive dust” from the feedyards in the region, the researchers wrote. “Thus, in semi-arid regions where a majority of beef cattle feedyards exist in North America, transport of livestock-generated organic wastes occurs largely via wind.”

Between August and December 2012, the researchers collected particulate matter samples in air filters from areas next to ten commercial beef cattle feedyards in the Southern High Plains. They measured the air both upwind and downwind of the ten locations for half an hour in the afternoons “when cattle are most active and the greatest amount of [particulate matter] is produced.” They then extracted the DNA from the particulate matter bound to the air filters, in which they detected the presence of nine antibiotic resistant genes.

The scientists also measured whether there were differences between the upwind and downwind particulate matter, and they found that the downwind air contained antibiotics, bacteria, and a much greater number of microbial communities containing antibiotic-resistant genes than the upwind air.

They noted that three tetracycline antibiotics (tetracycline, chlortetracycline, and oxytetracycline) were detected together in the majority of particulate matter samples downwind of feedyards (60 percent), while oxytetracycline was the most frequently detected of the three antibiotics, and it was detected in 100 percent of the samples collected downwind of feedyards and 30 percent of upwind samples.

"The 'aha' moment came when we saw how much more prevalent resistant sequences were downwind than upwind," Greg Mayer, a molecular biologist at Texas Tech and one of the study’s authors, told the Texas Tribune. "It was not just higher in some of them – it was 4,000 percent more. It made me not want to breathe."

The authors noted their concern in their paper.

“This study clearly demonstrates the potential for antibiotics and bacteria to be transported from beef cattle feedyards into the environment by wind. Thus, it is reasonable to consider how far microbes may be transported from these sources, and if they remain viable after aerial transport,” the researchers wrote. “This study was not designed to address these questions directly, rather it was intended to quantify airborne antibiotics, changes in microbial community composition, and identify antibiotic resistance genes derived from a potential source.”

“While many of the veterinary antibiotics approved for use in beef cattle production are not intended for human use, the potential for resistance to multiple antibiotics within the same class or otherwise, including those intended for human use, has been documented,” they added.

The cattle industry is pushing back against the study, saying it misrepresents the risk of super bacteria to human health, and deems its findings partial and inconclusive. Dr. Sam Ives, a veterinarian working with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, told the Texas Tribune that antibiotic use in the industry is "judicious."

"If I truly thought that the usage of these products was putting anyone at danger, I wouldn't be using them," Ives said. "My children work with me in the feedlot; my wife works with me. Am I concerned for their safety? No, I'm not."

But physicians may be taking the researchers’ side. In 10 years of treating patients at his Lubbock clinic, Dr. Randall Wolcott told the Texas Tribune that he has seen bacteria grow increasingly resistant to antibiotics used to treat their infections.

"We know that antibiotic-resistant genes are becoming more common," Wolcott said. "We use too many antibiotics for animal health, and it keeps food prices down. Is it a good tradeoff? This research is a piece of the puzzle that will help decide that question.”